Grandfather Clock

Two metres high and 43 cm wide, this grandfather clock made of dark wood features a round clock face behind glass with Roman numerals decorated in gold. A lockable compartment is built into roughly the middle of the wooden body, the door of which is adorned with a flower tendril. According to the box, the grandfather clock was made by the clockmakers Spies in 1774. Johann Georg Spies founded his workshop in Siegen around 1770, where he and his brother Johann Heinrich Spies produced high-quality clocks until his death in 1795. Among other things, Spies supplied enamelled numerals for the clock in Siegen’s town hall, produced copies for a new demand for domestic clocks in middle-class households and was responsible for maintaining the clock in Siegen’s St. Nicholas’ Church. A typical example of the Spies company was a clock mechanism that was wound every eight days and that struck every full and quarter hour.