Clocks · Clock
Clock, 1801–1920
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- 1801–1920
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Place
- Alemania
- Object type
- Clock
- Materials / technique
- Madera Pigmento Hueso
- Dimensions
- Altura = 87,50 cm Anchura = 42 cm Profundidad = 26 cm
- Holding institution
- National Museum of Romanticism
- Accession / object no.
- pages_Main_idt_7097_inventary_CE0500_table_FMUS_museum_MNR
- Credit line
- National Museum of Romanticism
- Catalogue title (original)
- Reloj (Spanish)
View the source record ↗ (opens another website in a new tab)Suggest a correction
Record summary
Held and catalogued by National Museum of Romanticism (object number pages_Main_idt_7097_inventary_CE0500_table_FMUS_museum_MNR), this is a clock, made in Alemania, dated 1801–1920. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Madera Pigmento Hueso. Recorded dimensions: Altura = 87,50 cm Anchura = 42 cm Profundidad = 26 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 National Museum of Romanticism
Reloj de sobremesa con autómatas realizado en madera. Caja con forma arquitectónica de planta cuadrangular, techumbre a dos aguas y torre campanario con chapitel, coronado por una veleta cruciforme. Las paredes están talladas simulando troncos superpuestos. Sobre base escalonada con formas que imitan rocas y ramas enmarañadas, que también cubren las paredes laterales y el tejado. En el frente, bajo el tejado, se aloja la esfera del reloj, con las horarias en números romanos, en hueso, y agujas caladas, en el mismo material. Debajo, puerta con tejaroz sobre dintel y dos batientes, entre dos ventanas laterales. En el interior, dos figuras de religiosos, ataviados con túnicas largas, en actitud de accionar las campanas. Este reloj pertenece a una tipología que surge en la región alemana de la Selva Negra, principalmente en Furtwangen. La tradición relojera de esta zona se inicia a mediados del siglo XVIII, vinculada principalmente a un artesanado campesino y al material más abundante de esta zona, la madera. Estos relojes se caracterizan por presentar todas sus piezas en esta materia y por la ausencia de marcas. Son a pesas y a péndulo, de cuarenta horas de marcha. Los relojes de la Selva Negra se difundieron por toda Europa, llegando incluso a Rusia y América, durante el siglo XIX. Se abandona su producción en la época de la Primera Guerra Mundial.
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
Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
Harrison solves longitude; Mudge invents the lever; Breguet's Paris workshop defines the modern watch.
The age of the deadbeat escapement, compensated pendulums and observatory regulators. Domestic clocks spread through the middle classes: English longcase and bracket clocks, French gilt-bronze mantel clocks, Viennese Biedermeier wall clocks, Black Forest painted-shield clocks, and the first American shelf clocks.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Early Modern 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.
Related records
Clocks · c. 1780
Longcase clock by Louis George, Eberswalde, c. 1780
Museum Eberswalde
Clocks · 1780s (inferred: the museum dates the style to the 1780s and the music includes Gluck's Iphigénie en Tauride of 1779)
Musical longcase clock, Roentgen workshop, Neuwied, 1780s
Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe
Clocks · 1740–1760
Longcase clock, English, 1740–1760, japanned wood, John Ellicott
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Clocks · 1740–60
Tall clock by Samuel Bagnall, United States, 1740–60
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Clocks · c.1750
Long-case clock, English, ca. 1750, by Richard Peyton of Gloucester
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Clocks · 1750–1800
Bracket clock in metal case with scroll handles and flamed-shaped top signed by Pierre Seignoret, Clockmaket to the the Comte d'Artois
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Clocks · c. 1750
Clock by Georg Gfell, Germany, c. 1750
German Clock Museum
Clocks · 1750–1799
Cuckoo / black forest clock, Germany, 1750–1799
Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe