Joseph Bockh, Linz

AN ASTRONOMICAL VERGE WATCH IN LATER INTERESTING AND UNUSUAL SILVER AND GOLD CELESTIAL SPHERE-FORM CASE MOVEMENT CIRCA 1720, CASE LATE 19TH CENTURY

• Movement: gilded full plate, verge escapement, broad decoratively pierced balance cock and foot engraved with scrolling foliage, plain flat balance with spring, silver regulation disc, pierced tulip pillars, fusee and chain, signed Joseph Bockh, Linz
• Dial: gilded, the ground engraved with foliage, three silver chapter rings for date (lacking hand), time with arrow-tipped hand and moon age indicated via a blued steel hand and with blued steel disc beneath heightened with a gold moon and stars, three further apertures for days of the week with corresponding planet, month with engraved seasonal vignettes and periods of the day with the changing sky
• Case: silver case modelled in the form of a celestial sphere with applied pink gold figural representations of the constellations engraved with their names, swivelling open from the pendant, the band with applied pink gold symbols of the zodiac, removable bayonet fitted silver bezel with engraved crescent and full moons interspersed by applied pink gold boss and star motifs, cover signed Cochin on a gold crescent moon
• Accompaniments: leather covered horseshoe shaped box with gold tooling, red velvet fitted interior
diameter 58mm

Provenance:
Christie's Geneva, 26 April 1976, lot 171
Time Museum, Rockford Illinois, Inventory no. 1250
Sotheby's New York, Masterpieces from the Time Museum Part II, 19 June 2002, lot 57