Image: Astronomical clock, design by Hans Holbein the Younger

Description: Design for Anthony Denny's Clocksalt. Pen and black ink on paper with grey wash and red wash on the compass, 41 × 21.3 cm, British Museum, London. Holbein designed this clocksalt—a combination of a clock, hourglass, sundial, and compass—for Anthony Denny, whose portrait he had drawn two years earlier. Denny was a rising figure in the royal court and went on to control the dry stamp of Henry VIII's signature at the end of the reign and play a key role in the regency council during the reign of Edward VI. Denny seems to have been a personal friend of Holbein: he lived in the same neighbourhood and lent him money, which Holbein paid back in the terms of his will. Holbein died in 1543, the same year he designed this clocksalt. A note on the drawing shows that Denny presented a clock made from this design to King Henry, who owned a number of clocks and clocksalts, as a New year's gift. It would have been an expensive item, made of precious metals. Holbein had often designed for goldsmiths since his training in Augsburg, a centre of the goldsmiths' trade. Two of the notes on the sketch are in the hand of Holbein's friend the royal astronomer Nicholas Kratzer, who probably assisted in the technical design of the piece. (Foister, p. 77.)
Title: Astronomical clock, design by Hans Holbein the Younger
Credit: Susan Foister, Holbein in England, London: Tate, 2006, ISBN 1854376454, p. 76.
Author: Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/1498–1543)
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No