A rare Black Forest carved walnut weight-driven 'Angelus' cuckoo wall clock Attributed to Johann Baptist Beha, Eisenbach, circa 1875 The wooden-framed triple train weight-driven movement with anchor escapement and wood-rod pendulum carved with Gothic tracery to bob, the striking train with external countwheel and linkages to two bellows and a cuckoo automaton which appears from behind a pair of doors within the gable of the case to announce the hour with a two-note call followed by the hour repeated on a gong, the third train with further countwheel and linkages to a monk who appears within an arched recess beneath the dial to apparently ring a bell set within the tower at six am., twelve noon and six pm., the circular wooden dial applied with bone Gothic Roman numerals and with pierced hands set within Gothic tracery to the front of the architectural case with arched recess beneath the dial and flanked by projecting spiral twist columns to the canted angles, the top with pierced spire containing a pivoted church bell above crotcheted gable incorporating circular doors for the cuckoo automaton flanked by spire finials and castellated parapet to sides, the base with inverted crotchet finials to the shaped pendant apron, (some losses to the case), 82cm (32.25ins) high excluding pendulum. Johann Baptist Beha was born in Oberbrand, 1815 and was trained as a clockmaker by his father,Vinzenz, before setting-up on his own in Eisenbach in 1845. He specialised in cuckoo clocks and through his continuous development became the leading maker of fine and complex examples. His main export markets were to Russia (where he had a distribution warehouse in St. Petersburg) and the British Isles. He died in 1898 leaving the business to be continued by his sons Lorenz and Engelbert. The design of the current lot appears in a surviving drawing by Lorenz Beha dated 1874 and was produced in very small numbers. The monk automaton is activated alongside the 'Angelus' striking which is intended to mark the time of prayer for the Catholic daily liturgy.