Console clock

A representative console clock with a case in the shape of an architectural free arcade, decorated with mother-of-pearl and flanked by pairs of alabaster columns, connected by a stepped cornice topped by three domes with pinnacles. Between the columns a clock mechanism hangs, with a round enamelled dial and a long light pendulum. The arcade is set on a high, straight pedestal, decorated with an oil-painted landscape of Helenentals in Baden (Austria), with Weilburg Castle in the background, built between 1820 and 1823 by Archduke Charles. A music box is incorporated into the plinth.

The clock indicates minutes, quarters and hours on a dial suspended in an arcade. A separate spring drive was used for the running mechanism, the half-hour and hour strike, a separate one for the quarter-hour strike and a separate one for the music box. The pendulum with an anchor winding on a floss pendant. The clock is equipped with a repetition mechanism, allowing to hear the striking of the last hour. After each hour the clock mechanism started a music box, in which the melody was coded with steel pegs on a brass shaft. The weight switch is synchronised with the clock mechanism by a thread. The pendulum of the clock is not original. Similar column clocks (named after the columns decorating the case) were made in many towns of the Austrian monarchy.

AK