The remnants of a rare German Renaissance small gilt brass steel-framed weight-driven chamber clock Unsigned, early 17th century The posted movement lacking all wheelwork except hour wheel and balance but retaining pivot plates (the centre gilt brass), strike-work detents and vertical hammer arbor set between steel top and bottom plates with square section uprights, the rectangular dial with starburst engraved centre and sculpted steel hand within silvered Roman numeral chapter ring beneath grotesque eagle mask and foliate scroll engraved infill centred with a naked female term over winged cherub-head and scroll decoration to lower margin, the sides with side doors centred with an open arch (formerly glazed) within architectural engraved surround decorated with winged cherub mask centred fruiting foliage to arch over Solomonic pilaster uprights and stylised tiled floor, the top with oval and C-scroll pierced and engraved 'strapwork' gallery frets flanked by ovoid spire finials set on rectangular plinths to front and sides around an arched steel bellstand surmounted by a matching finial applied to the upper brass top panel enclosing balance beneath, on repeating foliate motif engraved canted skirt base with toupe feet, 24cm (9.5ins) high; with a copy of Maurice, Klaus and Mayr, Otto THE CLOCKWORK UNIVERSE German Clocks and Automata 1550-1650 Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC 1980, dj, (2). The current lot is particularly interesting in that it was made as a weight-driven chamber clock rather than a spring table clock. Whilst the overall form resembles that of a table clock, complete with arched side panels reminiscent of Nuremburg and Augsburg table clocks of the late 16th century, some of the detailing, such as the sunburst-centred narrow silvered chapter ring and the pierced frets, are more akin to chamber clocks made in Northern Europe. Indeed the frets appear to be of a form often seen in English Elizabethan and Jacobean architecture as exemplified by an over-door ornament at Aston Hall, Birmingham, illustrated in Cooper, Nicholas THE JACOBEAN COUNTRY HOUSE on page 69.Although the current lot has lost its wheel-work it is still and interesting example which would certainly warrant reinstatement of the mechanism or could just be appreciated as is for its academic and decorative qualities.