NAWCC Bulletin
December 2001 Volume 43/6 Number 335
Table of Contents

About the Cover

The front cover features a privately owned wall clock of the type discussed in this month's article on Beha clocks. Made by Johann Baptist Beha, of Eisenbach, this clock is in the "Railroad-hut (Bahnhäuschen)" style with cuckoo. Features include a walnut housing with filigree inlay and partly carved, partly sawn leaf ornamentation, an oil painting on a metal insert, and an enameled dial face. The railroad-hut style is related to the mid-1840 designs by Friedrich Eisenlohr of the official buildings of the Baden State Railway (as described by Helmut Kahlert in his October 2001 Bulletin article). Instead of the better-known decorative style with woodcarving in naturalistic leaf and woodland motifs, here the cabinetmaker utilized a painted sheet-metal insert. The scene depicts the encounter of a woodcutter (garbed in folk-dress typical of the region near Baare: "Baaremer Tracht") with a game warden and his dog at wood's edge. The encounter evidently involves some sort of advertisement directed towards the woodcutter. The motif is a modification of a sketch by Heinrich Frank, which he published as a pattern sheet for clock painters in 1850-51. Here the door for the cuckoo is not quite truly integral to the activity depicted in the painting.

Photo courtesy Stadt Eisenbach/Schwarzwald