Clocks · Clock
Clock, 1600-1900 (XVII - XX)
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- 1600-1900 (XVII - XX)
- Historical period
- Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Place
- Alemania
- Object type
- Clock
- Materials / technique
- Bronce Madera de ébano
- Dimensions
- Altura = 49,50 cm Anchura = 24 cm
- Holding institution
- Lázaro Galdiano Museum
- Accession / object no.
- pages_Main_idt_129596_inventary_05770_table_FMUS_museum_MLGM
- Credit line
- Lázaro Galdiano Museum
- Catalogue title (original)
- Reloj de sobremesa - Reloj (Spanish)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by Lázaro Galdiano Museum (object number pages_Main_idt_129596_inventary_05770_table_FMUS_museum_MLGM), this is a clock, made in Alemania, dated 1600-1900 (XVII - XX). The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Bronce Madera de ébano. Recorded dimensions: Altura = 49,50 cm Anchura = 24 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
Catalogue description from Lázaro Galdiano Museum
Reloj de sobremesa de ébano y bronce dorado y calado. El pedestal, formado por tres alturas; la inferior con chaflanes en los que asientan cuatro leones echados y la superior con placas decoradas con grutescos de hidras, serpientes y vegetación. Sobre ella un zócalo tronco-piramidal con hipocampos en los ángulos y los lados con decoración de genios, faunos y términos, en cartelas. El frente con la esfera de numeración romana y grabada con los cuatro vientos y decoración simétrica de roleos y tornapuntas; pilares de términos en las esquinas que soportan la cubierta con antepecho almenado y cuatro leones tenantes con cartelas heráldicas en los cuatro ángulos, contorneando la cúpula, que es calada así como su tambor. Se remata por una linterna coronada por la figura de Marte. Máquina del tipo cabecera de platinas rectangulares. Motor a resorte de ocho días cuerda, con tracción por caracol y cadena. Porta escape de ancora con volante compensado. Esta máquina es un acoplamiento del siglo XIX.
Shown in the original language of the source catalogue. An editor-reviewed English translation has not yet been published; we do not publish machine translations as authoritative text.
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
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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