Half-hour sandglass

Unknown

ca. 1500–25 · Gilded silver, gilded bronze · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Considerably cheaper and more durable than clocks, sandglasses also required no maintenance. This finely wrought example for the highest end of the market was probably intended for devotional purposes. It would prompt its user not only to reflect on the passing of time and the transience of life but also, more practically, to time half-hour periods of prayer and meditation. Nuremberg became a center of sandglass production, uniting new glass technologies, local metalworkers, and a ready source of particularly fine reddish sand from the nearby village of Weissenbrunn. [Elizabeth Cleland, 2017]

Artist

Unknown

Date

ca. 1500–25

Medium

Gilded silver, gilded bronze

Culture

German

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Gift of Samuel P. Avery, 1912