Existing comment:
Automaton Clock with Pacing Lion
ca. 1619
Daniel Lotter
This royal animal with its gilded mane paces majestically on an ebony base. Originally, a mechanism connected to a quarter- and hour-striking movement caused the lion's eyes to roll, its jaw to open, and its tongue to stick out -- no doubt to the owner's enchantment. The veneer bears the Augsburg cabinetmakers' guild's mark "eben," a guarantee of real ebony, a valuable tropical wood. The lion's form was influenced by slightly earlier bronze statuettes made in Florence. |