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Russian travel officer's clock, finely chiseled gilt bronze case with plant and small flower motifs, visible movement signed H. Kreitz* in St Petersburg, repeater strike, on demand and alarm, enamelled dial with Arabic numerals, bevelled glass on all sides, circa 1850, mid-19th century.
This clock is in good condition and is of very high quality. It works perfectly. It chimes on demand with the button on the top. It chimes on the half and hour plus the alarm. We have the key.
Please note: some hair on the enamel of the dial, some dirt (especially on the windows) and slight wear from time, see photos.
The son of a merchant, he learned the watchmaking trade in London and Paris. In 1837, he moved to St. Petersburg and found employment in a watch shop on Nevsky Avenue, the city's boulevard, which he later took over. Kreitz achieved an astonishing level of skill in watchmaking. He purchased movements in Switzerland and France and "refined" them into valuable works of art that he sold to wealthy clients. His clocks showing the day, month, and phases of the moon—called calendar clocks—and his unusual small clocks were famous throughout the world. According to tradition, the three smallest pocket watches in the world, about the size of a small U.S. gold dollar, were said to have been in the possession of Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna (1798–1860), wife of Tsar Nicholas I, Queen Victoria of England, and Kreitz's daughter.
Kreitz quickly acquired such a fortune with his watches that he was able to retire as a multiple millionaire in 1855. After stays in Hamburg and Wiesbaden, he moved to Biebrich in 1870. There, the family moved into the first villa on Rheingaustraße (in the immediate vicinity of Biebrich Castle), which Kreitz had built according to his own plans by the Wiesbaden architect Ludwig Euler. Kreitz can be considered the greatest benefactor of the small Catholic community in Biebrich. In 1890, he had the spire of St. Mary's Church, consecrated in 1876, removed, donated the Late Gothic altar with the statues of the saints (which are now in the choir), the pulpit, the communion bench, three stained-glass windows, and had the choir painted in neo-Gothic style. Kreitz found his final resting place alongside his wife, who died in 1885, in the Briebrich cemetery, in a prestigious vault. Hubertusstrasse commemorates him.
(See the website of the city of Wiesbaden - Germany)
