A rare German Black Forest inlaid mahogany spring-driven musical cuckoo mantel clock Attributed to Johann Baptist Beha, Eisenbach, and retailed by A. Wherly and Sheraton, Sunderland, circa 1880 The wooden framed twin fusee movement with anchor escapement regulated by short pendulum with brass-faced bob, the hour strike train with outside countwheel and linkages to two bellows and a cuckoo automaton which appears from behind the door above the dial to announce the hour with a two-note call alternating with a hammer sounding on a gong fitted to the inside of the rear case panel prior to releasing a musical mechanism mounted within the base playing a tune via a 5 inch pinned cylinder and tuned steel comb, the 6 inch circular white enamel Roman numeral dial with pierced blued steel hands set within canted silvered metal surround behind hinged glazed brass bezel, the shallow-arch top case with twin doors for the cuckoo automaton to the foliate scroll inlaid tympanum and satin birch cavetto cornice over conforming scroll decorated spandrel infill to the line-bordered fascia, the sides with hinged doors with the right hand side accessing levers for silencing either the hour gong or cuckoo call, the rear with full-height lift-out panel applied with paper trade label inscribed A. WHERLY & SHERATON, CLOCKMAKERS, JEWELLERS, & c., 66 HIGH STREET WEST, (Opposite King Street), Bp Wearmouth, Sunderland... to interior, on tall ogee-outline skirt base decorated with further marquetry motif within line border to front over squab feet, 44cm (17.25ins) high; with a modern walnut wall bracket, of complex stepped moulded profile, the clock and wall bracket, the clock and wall bracket 56cm (22ins) high overall. Provenance: The property of a private collector, Hertfordshire. Johann Baptist Beha was born in Oberbrand, 1815 and was trained as a clockmaker by his father, Vinzenz, before setting-up on his own in Eisenbach in 1845. He specialised in cuckoo clocks and through his continuous development became the leading maker of fine and complex examples. His main export markets were to Russia (where he had a distribution warehouse in St. Petersburg) and the British Isles. He died in 1898 leaving the business to be continued by his sons Lorenz and Engelbert.