Clocks · Clock
Black Forest Cuckoo Clock, c. 1900
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- c. 1900
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- Germany
- Object type
- Clock
- Materials / technique
- bone
- Auction house
- LiveAuctioneers auction archive
- Lot
- Item 86799976
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: lot 140, Estates & Interiors | Online, Fontaine's Auction Gallery (2020), via LiveAuctioneers
- Catalogue title (original)
- Black Forest Cuckoo Clock (English)
View the source record (auction lot) ↗ (opens another website in a new tab)Suggest a correction
Record summary
Catalogued by LiveAuctioneers auction archive (lot Item 86799976), this is a clock, made in Germany, dated c. 1900. The Atlas places it in the Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking period (1900 – 1945) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: bone. The record is illustrated with 4 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
Lot description — Fontaine's Auction Gallery
Black Forest carved cuckoo clock with carved leaves, branches and mountain goats surrounding the dial with bone Roman hour numerals, deer head trophy crest, circa 1900. 23 in. high x 15 in. wide x 8 in. deep The absence of a condition report does not imply there are no condition issues with the lot. Please email jf@fontainesauction.com for a detailed condition report or with any questions about this lot.
Historical context
Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
The wristwatch displaces the pocket watch; waterproof cases, self-winding and grand complications.
Between 1900 and 1945 clocks were electrified: master-clock systems ran factories and offices, synchronous mains clocks entered homes, and the Shortt free-pendulum clock set new standards of accuracy before the first quartz clocks (1927). Art Deco design reshaped mantel and table clocks.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Industrial Revolution
Atlas type guide
Black Forest and cuckoo clocks
Clockmaking spread through the Black Forest in south-west Germany in the late seventeenth century as a winter occupation for farming families. Early clocks had wooden plates and wheels and a foliot ('Waaguhr') or short pendulum, with a painted wooden shield dial; pedlars (Uhrenträger) carried them across Europe. The cuckoo clock, which imitates the bird's call with two small bellows-driven pipes, appeared in the mid-eighteenth century.
The industry was organised around Furtwangen, Triberg, Schwenningen and Lenzkirch. The Furtwangen clockmaking school (1850) introduced the railway-house cuckoo clock design, and from the late nineteenth century factories such as Junghans, Kienzle and Hamburg-Amerikanische Uhrenfabrik produced clocks by the million. The German Clock Museum in Furtwangen preserves the region's history.
What to look for
- Wooden plates and wheels (earlier) versus brass movements (later).
- Painted shield dials (Lackschilduhr) with floral or figurative decoration.
- Cuckoo bellows and pipes, the carved 'railway house' or hunting-scene case.
- Trademarks and movement stamps of Black Forest factories.
Dating clues
- Wooden-wheeled foliot clocks: c. 1680–1750.
- Painted shield clocks: c. 1780–1880.
- Railway-house cuckoo clocks: after 1850; carved hunting-style cases after c. 1860.
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:FoliotAnchor (recoil) escapement
Related records
Clocks · c. 1900
Alarm clock by Union Clock Company, Germany, c. 1900
German Clock Museum
Clocks · 1900
Clock by Josef Münzer, Germany, 1900
German Clock Museum
Clocks · c. 1900
Cuckoo / black forest clock by Gebr. Lehnis, Germany, c. 1900
German Clock Museum
Clocks · 1900–1999
Longcase clock by Staatliche Majolika-Manufaktur Karlsruhe, Germany, 1900–1999
Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe
Clocks · c. 1900
Mantel clock by A. G. für Uhrenfabrikation Lenzkirch, Germany, c. 1900
German Clock Museum
Clocks · 1900–1999
Mantel clock by Wintermantel & Co., Germany, 1900–1999 (no. 56059)
German Clock Museum
Clocks · 1900–1999
Mantel clock by Wintermantel & Co., Germany, 1900–1999 (no. 56060)
German Clock Museum
Clocks · 1900–1999
Mantel clock by Wintermantel & Co., Germany, 1900–1999 (no. 56061)
German Clock Museum