LATIN CROSS SHAPED PECTORAL CLOCK. SILVER.17TH CENTURY.

Chest clock in the shape of a cross. Silver. 17th century. It has undergone restorations. Portable cross-shaped clock with an openwork exterior showing figurative Christian scenes and the movement inside, a gold band dial with Roman numerals for the hours, a single hand and an engraved decoration around it also of religious theme; on the back, the back of the movement is seen, with a delicate openwork decoration based on plant motifs of classicist reminiscence, and a band on the case of the piece of simplified plant elements. On the exterior, one side depicts Christ crucified, flanked by the Virgin Mary and Saint John, the figures surrounded by a delicate composition of vegetal scrolls, with an angel's head at the foot of the piece. The other side shows the Resurrection of Jesus, with Christ emerging from the empty tomb and soldiers at his sides, again with scrolls and above another angel's head. Vegetal and floral elements adorn the edges, accompanied by figures set within plaques. Inside, flanking the clock face, are the Original Sin below and the Expulsion from Paradise, with Adam on one arm of the cross formed by the clock, Eve on the other, and the angel at the top, brandishing the flaming sword (thus partially following the biblical text). Several antique portable clocks are known to have unusual shapes. While the most famous is the skull-shaped clock in the Metropolitan Museum (movement circa 1650 by Isaac Penard, case circa 1810-1820), and considering that these were by no means the typical type, several examples with a Latin cross shape are preserved. For instance, some of those held in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford: one attributed to Cornelius Stimmer (active circa 1660) depicts Christ Crucified on the front, flanked by the four Evangelists; another by Barthélemy Cheuillard (active 1636-1677), dated circa 1650, has an unpierced metal case with engraved decoration on the inside; Other examples, such as one dated around 1660 or another by Didier Lalemand (active 1675-1686) dated around 1660 or 1630, follow the most common practice in these extraordinary examples, which is to have an outer case made of rock crystal. This is also the case with the clock by Charles Bobinet, probably painted by Werner Hassel and dated to the mid-17th century, which is in the Metropolitan Museum, and with the one by Jean Rousseau the Younger in the British Museum in London, dated between 1640 and 1650 and made in Switzerland.

· Size: 7x5,5x2,5 cms