Skip to content
Watch MuseumHorology Atlas
Astronomical Clock — view 1 of 1
View 1 of 1 · Image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Open Access · original image source (opens another website in a new tab)

Clocks · Clock

Astronomical Clock

DocumentedDocumented from the holding institution's catalogue record.
Maker / attribution
Unrecorded in source
Date
18th–19th century
Historical period
Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
Country of origin
Japan
Place
Japan
Object type
Clock
Materials / technique
Brass, steel and wood
Dimensions
Diam. of dial 6 1/8 in. (15.6 cm)
Holding institution
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Accession / object no.
00.12.19
Credit line
Bequest of Thomas Egleston, 1900
Catalogue title (original)
Astronomical Clock (English)

View the source record ↗ (opens another website in a new tab)Suggest a correction

Record summary

Held and catalogued by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (object number 00.12.19), this is a clock, made in Japan, dated 18th–19th century. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Brass, steel and wood. Recorded dimensions: Diam. of dial 6 1/8 in. (15.6 cm). The record is illustrated with 1 photograph.

Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.

Catalogue description

The source record does not include a narrative description. The structured fields above are reproduced from it.

Historical context

Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)

Huygens' pendulum and balance spring transform accuracy; English makers develop the anchor and deadbeat escapements.

Huygens's pendulum (1656–57) improved clock accuracy from about a quarter of an hour to under a minute a day. The anchor escapement (c. 1670) and the long seconds pendulum created the longcase clock; London makers such as Fromanteel, Knibb, Tompion and Quare led European clockmaking, and French makers created the Boulle pendule.

Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Renaissance Horology

Atlas type guide

Astronomical, musical and automaton clocks

Astronomical clocks display more than the hour: the positions of the sun and moon in the zodiac, the phase of the moon, the calendar, sometimes the planets and eclipses. From Richard of Wallingford's and Giovanni de' Dondi's fourteenth-century clocks to the Prague Orloj and the Strasbourg cathedral clocks, they demonstrated the order of the cosmos. Renaissance makers in Augsburg and Nuremberg built celestial globe clocks and monstrance clocks as princely treasures.

Automaton and musical clocks entertained as well as informed: figures move, birds sing, organs and carillons play tunes from pinned cylinders. The eighteenth-century trade with China ('sing-songs') and Ottoman Turkey created a market for elaborate English, Swiss and French automata.

What to look for

  • Subsidiary dials for moon phase, calendar, zodiac and planetary positions.
  • Celestial globes or armillary spheres turned by the movement.
  • Pinned cylinders, bellows and pipes or bells for music.
  • Figures on cams and levers; separate trains for automaton work.

Dating clues

  • Renaissance astronomical table and globe clocks: c. 1550–1650.
  • English and Swiss automaton clocks for the Chinese market: c. 1760–1820.
  • Picture clocks (clockwork pictures) are mostly nineteenth century.

General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.

Read next:Verge escapementFusee

Related records

A George I green japanned eight-day longcase clock, c. 1720

Clocks · c. 1720

A George I green japanned eight-day longcase clock, c. 1720

LiveAuctioneers auction archive

Queen Anne japanned tall-case clock, c. 1740

Clocks · c. 1740

Queen Anne japanned tall-case clock, c. 1740

LiveAuctioneers auction archive

Japanese Clock

Clocks · 1600–1800

Japanese Clock

Science Museum Group, London

Table clock, probably Denmark, early 17th century

Clocks · Early 17th century

Table clock, probably Denmark, early 17th century

German Clock Museum

Clock, France, 1590–1610

Clocks · 1590–1610

Clock, France, 1590–1610

MAK – Museum of Applied Arts

Table Clock, sheet brass, engraved, pierced and gilt, Paris, ca.1600, signed 'B(?) Pichard, à Paris'

Clocks · c. 1600

Table Clock, sheet brass, engraved, pierced and gilt, Paris, ca.1600, signed 'B(?) Pichard, à Paris'

Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Circular table-clock with calendrical and lunar indications made by Nicholas Vallin in London between 1598 and 1603.

Clocks · 1598–1603

Circular table-clock with calendrical and lunar indications made by Nicholas Vallin in London between 1598 and 1603.

Science Museum Group, London

Clock by Joannes Volcker, Belgium, 1600–1699 (no. AP_10156031)

Clocks · 1600–1699

Clock by Joannes Volcker, Belgium, 1600–1699 (no. AP_10156031)

Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage