Ram Gargoyle Hourglass

Rams are strong-headed creatures. As gargoyles, they are even stronger. In the Ram Gargoyle Sandtimer, ram gargoyles hold together this hourglass. Made from cold cast resin, this grey hourglass features four ram gargoyles, two on the top and bottom. The gargoyles on each side face away from each other. They have hooves and horns in addition to their sheep faces. The wings of the top gargoyles touch the wings of the bottom ones, forming columns. A block rests between the connecting wings. Also, the gargoyles sit on platform bases. Trefoil designs adorn both sides of the bases. These bases allow the hourglass to sit on a flat surface. In between the two gargoyles is the glass sandtimer. The sand may vary in color. This hand-painted sand timer offers a unique piece to decorate your home with a functional twist. Approx. size 5" x 2.8" x 6.3".

Please be aware that this sand-timer is not meant for exact timing. It measures around 5-8 minutes, but the exact time measured can vary.

Both the mechanical clock and the hourglass found powerful symbolic roles during the Renaissance. The complex mechanical clock with its rotary gears became a metaphor for the heavenly spheres or for the wheel of fortune. But the hourglass, whose sands run out, was a thing of this base earth. It became a metaphor for the running-out-of-sands we all inevitably face. It became, and it remains, a universal symbol of death.

Two technologies, one simple, one complex, running side by side -- the clock making a continuum of time, the hourglass segmenting it -- the clock speaking of timelessness, the hourglass showing us finality -- the clock evoking things celestial, the hourglass reminding us of base earth. They are Yin and Yang.

Hourglasses found their place in setting off blocks of time. The time between canonical hours in a monastery, or between watches on shipboard. They ran neither long enough nor accurately enough to be of much use in marine navigation. They were a poor person's timepiece -- a kind of clock for everyman.