Pinwheels of Flowers

Table pendulum clock with shelf, painted and gilded porcelain, Meissen manufactory, 19th century.

Miramare Castle rivals its surrounding park in its lively and constant attention to the botanical and floral element, which in the castle’s rooms also returns prominently in the decoration of certain clocks in the Archduke’s collection.

One of them, in particular, housed in Charlotte’s sitting room, appears to be an undisputed homage to the spring season for the multicoloured porcelain “pinwheels of flowers” that adorn its entire surface, as, being a table clock, it was intended to be seen at the back as well.

The quoted expression comes from an August 1859 archival document, an expense report attesting to the repair, by the Trieste watchmaker Mathias Hladnig, of a “porcelain clock with pinwheels of flowers for 50 florins,” which can clearly be identified as our piece.

Observing their details is a real pleasure for the eye: roses, daisies, bellflowers and other flowers of intense colours are modelled in relief with supreme skill and with a rendering faithful to nature, to such an extent that their representation makes them seem to be taken from one of the countless botanical books owned by Maximilian of Habsburg.

Made by the celebrated Meissen manufactory, as evidenced by the brand consisting of two crossed swords painted blue, this clock is dated to the second quarter of the nineteenth century based on the evidence offered by similar specimens.