Florentine court cabinet and clock

This Florentine court cabinet and clock features an architectural upper clock cabinet set atop a larger lower plinth section. The structure is constructed primarily of ebony and ebonised wood, decorated with gilt bronze grotesque mounts, brass, and commessi di pietre dure panels. The upper section is framed by carved volutes and flanked by columns, housing a clock with a lapis lazuli dial set above a hardstone grotesque face of Dionysos carved from pink Volterra chalcedony (calcedonio di volterra). Other materials used in the mosaics include jasper, agate, onyx, marble, mother-of-pearl, and shell, with chalcedony employed to represent pearls. The interior is lined with silk embroidered in gold thread with the initials 'AMEP' surmounted by a coronet.

The upper clock cabinet was made in Florence between 1704 and 1705 in the Grand Ducal workshops by Giovanni Battista Foggini and Leonard van der Vinne, with the lapidary work attributed to Giuseppe Antonio Torricelli. The movement, dated 1704, was made by Johannes Hittorff in Bonn, replacing an earlier movement by Ignatius Huggeford. The upper portion measures 99.4 cm in height, 99.1 cm in width, and 20.9 cm in depth. The lower section dates to circa 1860, incorporating a central commesso panel dating to circa 1700, and measures 99.8 cm high, 148.9 cm wide, and 53 cm deep.