Watch in the form of a skull, ca. 1640-50
Movement by Isaac Penard (Swiss, 1619-1676)
Case and dial: silver, partly nielloed, with a single silver hand; Movement: gilded brass and steel; back plate of movementThe lower jaw is hinged to the base of the skull to make a cover for the dial of the watch. The dial is engraved and filled with niello marking the hours with Roman numerals (I–XII) and the half hours with fleurs-de-lis. The skull watch was a specialty of Geneva, and to a lesser extent of Blois, both prominent centers of Protestant watchmakers during the first decades of the seventeenth century. Isaac Penard was a native Swiss who was apprenticed to the Genevan master Jacques Sermand (1595–1651), a well-known maker of skull watches as well as watches in such shapes as tulip buds, crosses, and stars.
(via welcometomywonderland)
