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Automaton clock in the form of the Madonna and Child — view 1 of 1
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Clocks · Automaton clock

Automaton clock in the form of the Madonna and Child

DocumentedDocumented from the holding institution's catalogue record.
Maker / attribution
Nikolaus Schmidt the Elder (Maker)
Date
c. 1620–25
Historical period
Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
Country of origin
Germany
Place
German, Augsburg
Object type
Automaton clock
Materials / technique
Case: gilded brass, silver, and ebony veneered on oak; Movement: brass and iron
Dimensions
Overall: 12 1/2 × 6 1/2 × 4 1/2 in. (31.8 × 16.5 × 11.4 cm)
Holding institution
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Accession / object no.
29.52.13
Credit line
Gift of Mrs. Simon Guggenheim, 1929
Catalogue title (original)
Automaton clock in the form of the Madonna and Child (English)

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Record summary

Held and catalogued by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (object number 29.52.13), this is an automaton clock by Nikolaus Schmidt the Elder, made in German, Augsburg, Germany, dated c. 1620–25. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Case: gilded brass, silver, and ebony veneered on oak; Movement: brass and iron. Recorded dimensions: Overall: 12 1/2 × 6 1/2 × 4 1/2 in. (31.8 × 16.5 × 11.4 cm). The record is illustrated with 1 photograph.

Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.

Catalogue description

The source record does not include a narrative description. The structured fields above are reproduced from it.

Historical context

Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)

Huygens' pendulum and balance spring transform accuracy; English makers develop the anchor and deadbeat escapements.

Huygens's pendulum (1656–57) improved clock accuracy from about a quarter of an hour to under a minute a day. The anchor escapement (c. 1670) and the long seconds pendulum created the longcase clock; London makers such as Fromanteel, Knibb, Tompion and Quare led European clockmaking, and French makers created the Boulle pendule.

Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Renaissance Horology

Atlas type guide

Astronomical, musical and automaton clocks

Astronomical clocks display more than the hour: the positions of the sun and moon in the zodiac, the phase of the moon, the calendar, sometimes the planets and eclipses. From Richard of Wallingford's and Giovanni de' Dondi's fourteenth-century clocks to the Prague Orloj and the Strasbourg cathedral clocks, they demonstrated the order of the cosmos. Renaissance makers in Augsburg and Nuremberg built celestial globe clocks and monstrance clocks as princely treasures.

Automaton and musical clocks entertained as well as informed: figures move, birds sing, organs and carillons play tunes from pinned cylinders. The eighteenth-century trade with China ('sing-songs') and Ottoman Turkey created a market for elaborate English, Swiss and French automata.

What to look for

  • Subsidiary dials for moon phase, calendar, zodiac and planetary positions.
  • Celestial globes or armillary spheres turned by the movement.
  • Pinned cylinders, bellows and pipes or bells for music.
  • Figures on cams and levers; separate trains for automaton work.

Dating clues

  • Renaissance astronomical table and globe clocks: c. 1550–1650.
  • English and Swiss automaton clocks for the Chinese market: c. 1760–1820.
  • Picture clocks (clockwork pictures) are mostly nineteenth century.

General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.

Read next:Verge escapementFusee

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