marked Ch. Möllinger A BERLIN, replaced large spring-driven movement, c. 1800/30, power reserve: 1 week, lever escapement, half-hour count wheel striking mechanism on bell, restored enamel dial, engraved gilt brass hands, three-piece architectural mahogany clock case with openwork backed with panels, lower section with three doors and two drawers, clock case with structured cornice, Corinthian columns, obelisk-shaped top with bronze relief: ‘Nimm mit erkenntlichem Gemüth der Zeit wahr die du hast, sie flieht’, surmounted by a bronze medallion of a later date with Bacchus scene, behind the clock a large musical mechanism and vertical spinet, 245 x 87 x 50 cm, Germany c. 1795, signs of age and use, parts replaced, alterations, no warranty for sound, precision of movement and long-term functioning, 1 pendulum, 22 wooden rolls in a box with 3 (for the most part described) melodies each, (HP)

Christian Möllinger, 1754 Neustadt - 1826 Berlin, from 1778 at the Berlin Court Clockmaker Christan Ernst Kleemeyer, built the 'Academy Clock' after plans of the astronomer Johann Elert Bode, from 1790 Chief Court Clockmaker to the Prussian King.

Provenance:
1908 Collection of Heinrich Reinhardt (1865-1922), composer and music critic
1948 Sale, Dorotheum Vienna, 1 June 1948, lot 378

Published:
Hans Tietze: Österreichische Kunsttopographie, Die Denkmale der Stadt Wien, photograph standing on the left next to an oil painting of Fanny Elssler