THE CASE ATTRIBUTED TO DAVID ROENTGEN, THE CLOCK MOVEMENT ATTRIBUTED TO PETER KINZING, THE MUSICAL MOVEMENT ATTRIBUTED TO JOHANN WILHELM WEYL, CIRCA 1785-90

ROENTGEN AND KINZING
David Roentgen (1743-1807), maître in 1780. Conceived as a grand architectural monument, this magnificent musical organ clock is a prime example of Roentgen's unrivalled craftsmanship, combining the use of exquisite figured veneers, costly ormolu mounts and ingenious technical devices. It also demonstrates the success of his collaboration with François Rémond (1747-1812), who supplied the ormolu mounts, the clockmaker Peter Kinzing (1745-1816), who provided the movement, and the instrument maker Johann Wilhelm Weyl (1756-1813), who constructed the musical movement.
Peter IV Kinzing was born to a dynasty of clockmakers in Neuwied and married the daughter of the clockmaker Herman Achenbach, partly collaborating with his father-in-law until he took over his workshop in 1772. From 1755, the independent Kinzing workshop was already producing clocks together with the Roentgens (Fabian, op. cit., 1992, p. 44). Almost all of David Roentgen's important clocks were made in collaboration with Kinzing, who also supplied Roentgen with other sophisticated mechanical works, including table pianos. In 1785 Marie-Antoinette purchased a clock from Roentgen and Kinzing for presentation to the Academy of Science and Roentgen was named Ébéniste mécanicien du Roi et de la Reine while Kinzing was named Horloger de la Reine.

JOHANN WILHELM WEYL
Johann Wilhelm Weyl (1756-1813) and his brother Johann Christian Weyl (1758-1827) were musical instrument makers, producing pianos, organs and dulcimers. They collaborated closely with Roentgen and Kinzing, and shared Roentgen's workshops for many years until they set up their own organ business in Neuwied in 1807.

THE ORMOLU MOUNTS
The pediment mounts for these clocks were supplied by the maître doreur François Remond; in 1786 Remond charged Roentgen 384 livres for ‘… 2 bas-reliefs de frontons, composés de deux enfants, une lyre et couronne de laurier à fond très riche…’. (Gillian Wilson, European Clocks in the J. Paul Getty Museum, California, 1996, p. 139.).

RELATED CLOCKS
The present clock is of the same overall design conceived by Roentgen for the majority of his recorded pedestal organ clocks. These show a variety of finished designs using those elements supplied by Remond: two examples at the Hermitage Museum (Inv. E 3.030) and Pavlovsk Palace (A. N. Kuchumov, Pavlovsk Palace & Park, Leningrad, 1975, fig. 189) have a large ormolu figure of Apollo to the top of the case; the triangular pediment, common to all recorded examples; and the kneeling figure of Father Time supporting the dial, as seen in approximately half the known models (as on the clock in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Inv. 85.DA.116, Wilson, op. cit. pp. 132-139). A related example with the same correlating monts to the lower portion is currently part of the Wiemar Castle Collection (Inv. 937.)