A very large Dutch ebonized musical calendar table clock, J.P. Kroese Amsterdam, circa 1740

Description

26-cm wide arched brass dial with polychrome flower border, engraved silvered chapter ring with Roman numerals signed I.P. Kroese Amsterdam, blued steel hands, matted centre with apertures for date, mock pendulum and date, brass mask spanrels in the lower corners and subsidiaries for play/not play and strike/silent in the upper corners, polychrome moonphase in the arch with tune selection sector above with days of the mooncycle, spring driven 8-day three fusee movement with verge escapement and foliate engraved back plate, Dutch half hour striking on two alternating bells, playing alternately 2 of 12 melodies with 29 hammers on 15 bells, inverted bell top surmounted by five urn finials, further adorned with fine foliate engraved blind frets, similar frets to the sides and doors, moulded base with a brass plinth raised on flat moulded feet.

J(ohannes) P(ieter) Kroese (1702-1778) was born in Barmen and started working as clockmaker in Amsterdam in 1729. Later he worked together with his son Pieter in their workshop in the Kalvertraat. Enrico Morpurgo, Nederlandse Klokken- en Horlogemakers vanaf 1300, pp. 74. Jaap Zeeman, De Nederlandse Staande Klok, pp. 470.