Gilt bronze table clock featuring a Nubian in armor with a m - Lot 98

Gilt bronze table clock featuring a Nubian in armor with a mobile patinated bronze head beating the time. Openwork base containing the movement and gong. Handwritten inscription inside: "Jacobus Marchio Madoni fecit 1716". Probably Nuremberg, circa 1600. (Hands missing, dial attached, movement incomplete). Height: 28 cm A deed dated 1721, kept at the University of Vienna, mentions a surgeon named Jacobus Madoni, probably the former owner of this clock and the author of the modifications. The representation of a standing Moor showing a globe or dial is a rare iconographic theme used for a short period in Germanic countries. Comparable clocks: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, no. 47.133.1 Sale, Paris, Couturier-Nicolay, March 28, 1990, n° 98 Sale, Paris, Libert, November 20, 2019, n°216