A Dutch Hague clock, signed on a silver cartouche on the dial Claude Pascal Hagae Hollandiae, c. 1662. The ebony and turtle-shell -veneered pine case has a moulded broken arch pediment with an ebony finial on a base in the middle. The back has a star inlay on the inside. The door is flanked by two pillars on high basements, whilst the sides have rectangular windows. There are two suspension eyes at the top whilst the clock can also rest on four ball feet. The eight-day going, plated movement, driven by a spring in a spring barrel, has a going train with verge escapement and short pendulum, suspended between two cycloidal cheeks. The back plate is also signed by the maker: C. Pascal. The velvet-covered dial has a silver chapter ring with Roman hour numerals and Arabic minute markers, surrounded by four silver cherub-head spandrels, the time being indicated by two pierced and engraved hands. • Height: 34 cm. • The maker, Claude Pascal (b. before 1635, d. 1674), was probably of Swiss origin (Geneva) and was established as a watchmaker in The Hague from 1654; he married Margarithe Paje there in 1655. His daughter Anne-Marie (b. 1663) was married to the clockmaker Pierre Batard, who was also from Geneva and worked in The Hague. Pascal went to Paris in 1670, where he died three or four years later. He made at least six pendulum clocks for clients in Paris, for whom Huygens acted as an intermediary. There was a watch by Pascal in the Feill collection.  • Literature: R. Plomp, Spring-driven Pendulum Clocks 1657-1710, Schiedam, 1979, pp.187-193; H.M. Vehmeyer, Clocks, Their Origin and Development, 1320 – 1880, Gent, 2004, passim.