A GERMAN ORMOLU-MOUNTED MAHOGANY STRIKING CABINET CLOCK

While closely related in design and proportion to a musical clock at schloss Neuwied, dated circa 1785, its case attributed to David Roentgen and its complex musical movement signed by Kinzing (see D. Fabian, Kinzing und Roentgen: Uhren aus Neuwied, Bad Neustadt, 1984, pp. 208-209, ills. 83-86), it is possible that this clock was made by Roentgen's contemporary Johannes Kroll (d. 1795). Kroll, who originated from Riga, worked in Roentgen's Neuwied workshop in 1779, but by 1781 had already worked on a commission for the elector of Mainz, for whom he supplied a 'Treasure of mahogany with Neuwied musical clock and richly decorated with gilt-bronze'.