Austrian Clock Dial with Automaton

[harold]

Bought out a watchmaker a few weeks agon and just took time to go through the junk that was left over in a box wraped in rags. I wish I had the rest of the clock with it. No part of the movement was with this purchase. A real shame. Both the figures move.

[Kim St.Dennis Sr.]

Wow! We don't see very many Viennese Bracket Clocks, a very unique find. First half of the 19th Century I would say. Most likely a Bracket or Mantel Clock. I would dearly love to see the case & movement it came out of. I had a look through my DVD of the Wien Uhrenmuseum Video (Vienna Clock Museum) to see if they had any dials like it. Some were close and definitely in the style of your dial, but no sub calendar dials or animation. The did have some figurine animated clocks, but no dial animation.
The early Viennese movements can look a bit crude and not finished very well. So it is easy to over look a "jewel in the rough" Viennese movement. I once had the opportunity to very closely examine a 3 train cast case 30 hour Viennese Carriage on hairy paw feet. The case was ormolu and the movement was circular and not finished very well. What I mean by not finished very well is the plates, gears and levers were not polished to a mirror finish, like I see on most "real" Vienna Regulators.

You might be able to find out what region of Austria the dial is depicting by the style of dress of the figures. At the time this dial was mostly made the Black Forest was also part of the Austrian Empire. Just a thought.