SHOWCASE 9

The museum presents interesting samples of table and pocket watches of the 16th-17th centuries. Many of them are excellent examples of technical perfection and jewellery art of two centuries.

Around 1500, the German master Peter Henlein invented a watch spring, which made it possible to reduce a clock mechanism and make watches portable and different in shape. Watches were very expensive and were only available to wealthy people. They had to testify to their owner's wealth, taste and sometimes predilections or activities. On display are pieces predominantly of western work. Some of them belonged to Russian sovereigns, as well as representatives of the boyar aristocracy.

Table clock "Bacchus" is the biggest, most complicated exhibit in the showcase—it is a gilded bronze, decorated with many cast decorative figures that come into motion during the chime. The clock is believed to have been presented to Ivan the Terrible, as it is known that at the end of the 16th century it stood in the Faceted Chamber during the reception of foreign ambassadors.

A "Horseman" table clock is made of bronze by Western masters. The head and hands of the rider costumed in Oriental style are mobile. The eyes and tail of the horse are also movable, as are the back legs of the dog running to the right of the horse.

Among pocket watches on display, there is an interesting watch in the form of a miniature book, which was first mentioned in the inventory of Ivan the Terrible's belongings. The watch's rectangular body is decorated with a carved ornament—a full-height depiction of a man wearing a winged helmet and holding a spear (Mercury?).

Personalized watches, which belonged to the heads of the Russian Church—Patriarchs Filaret and Nikon, are made in the form of bulbs. Patriarch Filaret's watch's lid is ornamented with an enamel image of a blessing hand.

Here one can also see a skull-shaped watch crafted by a maker from Strasbourg. They are silver; mechanism and dial are located in the upper jaw.

Powder flask with watch—silver gilt, decorated with a carved foliage pattern and an embossed image of a double-headed eagle on the lid was probably created in the Kremlin's workshops. A cross-shaped plate with a curved edge is attached to the body, passing into a smooth tube, through which the powder is poured into the flask.