641 - A table clock with continuous relief depicting the story of Adam and Eve

A table clock with continuous relief depicting the story of Adam and Eve Fire-gilt, engraved brass, polished wrought iron, partly blued. Square case on four paw feet. Horizontal dial with compass, day and night hour indication and 24 studs for tactile indication, with engraved winged angel heads in the spandrels. Pierced sound openings on two sides of one corner, additionally in the wrought-iron plate. Movement with iron pillars, going and striking trains, one bell, one-day movement. Unsigned. Height 8, width and depth approx. 13.5 cm. South German, late 16th C. The depictions from Genesis 2-3 of the Creation of Eve and the Expulsion from Paradise are also found on plaquettes cast in bronze and lead, whose attribution to Peter Flötner (c. 1490-1546) has been questioned by Ingrid Weber. The Expulsion is based on Dürer’s woodcut from the Small Passion, which was also used by Erhard Schön for his illustrations of the Lyon Bible published by the Nuremberg printer Anton Koberger. Literature For more on the motifs of the reliefs, cf. Weber, Deutsche, Niederländische und Französische Renaissance Plaketten, Munich 1975, no. 199.