Clocks · Clock
Case veneered in burr walnut, with arched top; from the early furnishings of the V&A
- Maker / attribution
- Dutton & Co (maker)
- Date
- 1850-1900
- Historical period
- Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Clock
- Materials / technique
- Burr walnut veneer with silvered face
- Dimensions
- Height: 38 cm; Width: 38 cm; Depth: 17.5 cm
- Holding institution
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- Accession / object no.
- W.3-2004
Record summary
Held and catalogued by Victoria and Albert Museum, London (object number W.3-2004), this is a clock by Dutton & Co, made in London, England, dated 1850-1900. The Atlas places it in the Industrial Revolution period (1850 – 1900) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Burr walnut veneer with silvered face. Recorded dimensions: Height: 38 cm; Width: 38 cm; Depth: 17.5 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
V&A — Summary
This clock was purchased for use in the offices of the Victoria and Albert Museum, known in the 19th century as the South Kensington Museum. The clock is marked with the maker's name, 'Dutton & Co'. It was retailed by C. Sansom; inside the clock is a paper label: 'C. Sansom, Watch and Clock Makers, 2 Montpelier Street Brompton Road, Clock Makers to the Department of Science and the South Kensington Museum'. On the clock face are a crown and the initials VR (Victoria Regina), indicating that it was made for official use during the reign of Queen Victoria. Sansom's shop was near to the Museum and supplied several clocks for staff use. This and other selected items of museum furniture have been taken into the permanent collections as illustrations of the kind of plain, good quality furnishings supplied for public offices during the reign of Victoria.
V&A — Physical description
Table clock with silvered face in arn arched case veneered in burr walnut, on a rectangular plinth. At the sides, two scrolling brackets carved in solid walnut with scrolling acanthus leaves and a deaisy. Two handles. Roman numerals. At the back is an arched door with a key-hole. With mahogany veneered framework filled with a metal grill of tarnished brass, back with red baize. Some cracks in the veneer of the arched top and an old filled crack above the clock face.
V&A — Object history
Historical significance: An example of early V&A furnishing, with makers' labels.
Inscriptions & marks
VR; Dutton & Co; C. SANSOM Watch and Clock Makers 2 MONTPELIER STREET BROMPTON ROAD Clock Makers to the Department of Science and the South Kensington Museum
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
Domestic clocks
A clock combines four systems: a source of power (falling weight, coiled spring, or later electricity), a gear train that divides time, an escapement and oscillator that regulate it (foliot, pendulum or balance), and an indicating system of dial and hands or a bell. Its history runs from the large iron weight-driven clocks of the late thirteenth century to Renaissance spring-driven table clocks, the pendulum revolution of 1656, the factory clocks of the nineteenth century and electric and quartz clocks of the twentieth.
Domestic clocks also reflect regional furniture and decorative traditions — English longcase and bracket clocks, French pendules, Viennese regulators, Black Forest and American shelf clocks — and therefore record changing tastes as much as technical progress.
What to look for
- How the clock is powered: weights, spring barrel, fusee, electric coil.
- The oscillator: foliot, short pendulum, long seconds pendulum or balance.
- Whether it strikes: hour only (count wheel) or hours and quarters (rack striking).
- The maker or retailer's name on dial and movement, and any factory trademarks.
- Signs of alteration — replaced dials, converted escapements, 'married' cases.
Dating clues
- Before 1656 clocks used foliots or balances; after, most domestic clocks have pendulums.
- Anchor escapements spread after c. 1670; minute hands became common at the same time.
- Factory production in America and Germany transformed prices after c. 1840.
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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