Table Clock

Description This clock indicates the hours (1-24) on the main dial and the quarter hours on the lower dial. When the clock was made in 1573, minutes were not in common use (as they were hard to measure); time was usually divided into hours and quarter hours. The sides of the case were intended to be removed. On the exterior of the left panel is engraved the image of the Habsburg emperor Charles V (Caesar Carolus); the panel on the right has on the inside a sundial (for setting the clock) and a compass ("north" had to be established to read the sundial). On the exterior is engraved the figure of the Old Testament king, David. The original spring mechanism of the clock was replaced by a pendulum in the late 1600s to improve its accuracy, and at that point, balls were added to the feet to increase the height.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
5/13/1958	Treatment	cleaned
1/09/1978	Treatment	cleaned
1/27/1978	Loan Consideration	examined for loan
12/13/1979	Examination	examined for loan
4/03/1987	Treatment	cleaned; loss compensation; stabilized

Provenance Henry Walters, Baltimore [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters