A Memento Mori depicting a skull and skeleton holding a scythe, Germany 1900.

Germany mid 19th century.

Bronze sculpture on a black marble base, depicting a Vanitas Memento-mori, a seated skeleton holding a scythe. The sculpture functions as a pocket watch holder, including a pocket watch (the silver watch is not working). The brass plate shoulder is engraved with the hours in Latin, taken from a phrase from Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Book XV), “Tempus edax rerum, tuque invidiosa.” With this phrase, Ovid emphasizes the inexorable and destructive power of time and old age, which slowly corrupt and destroy everything with their “teeth.” Germany, circa 1900.

13” – 33 CM H 6” – 15 CM L 8” – 20 CM D

REF: M6189