A Beha Shelf Cuckoo and a Carl Heine Painting

This Beha cuckoo was made C. 1870 in Eisenbach, Schwarzwald. The typical wood plate 8 day double fusee movement is housed in a beautiful round top elongated walnut case.

The case is intricately done with fruit wood inlays of oak leaves and acorns both on the base and well at the top. The cuckoo door is also inlaid with flowers and leaves. What makes this Beha special is the full oil painting on zinc or tin.

While Beha frequently used paintings on his cuckoo clocks, this was rarely done on the shelf or table examples. These Beha shelf clocks with large oil paintings are prized by collectors worldwide.

The painting on the clock is well done. It shows a mother and child on the ground...quietly looking up into the tree at the cuckoo up in the branches. The mother pointing to the cuckoo.

This painting was painted by the well known Black Forest painter Carl Heine, of Neustadt (1842-1882). Carl Heine's work almost always includes the tree with the bending trunk, and cuckoo up in the branches. The subjects eyes always gaze up at the bird... and frequently pointing to the bird... as on this clock.

The book IN DIE NEUE ZEIT (which covers clocks and influential people from the Titisee/Neustadt region in the Black Forest) has several pages devoted to Carl Heine... his life, his work, and many of his paintings. This piece shows a softer side of the clocks produced in the Black Forest.