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Automaton Semaphore Clock with water-wheel, c. 1860 — view 1 of 6
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Clocks · Clock

Automaton Semaphore Clock with water-wheel, c. 1860

DocumentedDocumented from a dealer's listing; attribution and date as stated by the dealer.
Maker / attribution
Unrecorded in source
Date
c. 1860
Historical period
Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
Country of origin
France
Object type
Clock
Dealer
Pendulum of Mayfair (dealer), London
Stock no.
654
Credit line
Dealer listing, Pendulum of Mayfair (654)
Catalogue title (original)
Automaton Semaphore Clock with water-wheel C1860 (English)

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

Record summary

Catalogued by Pendulum of Mayfair (dealer), London (stock number 654), this is a clock, made in France, dated c. 1860. The Atlas places it in the Industrial Revolution period (1850 – 1900) of its Clocks collection. The record is illustrated with 6 photographs.

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

Dealer description — Pendulum of Mayfair

Featured here a rare French Industrial Revolution semaphore clock. Showing interesting design and features. The clock in the form of a building housing a working semaphore to the top. Also with an automaton water wheel and flowing imitation water feature to the bottom. 8 day movement. To sum up a fine clock for any collection. French Clocks

Historical context

Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)

American interchangeable-parts manufacture; railroad time standards; Swiss and German factory systems.

Factory production transformed the clock into an everyday object. American makers (Seth Thomas, Ansonia, Waterbury) and German factories (Junghans, Gustav Becker, Lenzkirch) sold millions of shelf, wall and alarm clocks worldwide; France produced standardised Paris movements and carriage clocks; electric time distribution began.

Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Precision & Scientific 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.

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