Clocks · Clock
Clock, 1826–1875 (mid-19th century)
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- 1826–1875 (mid-19th century)
- Historical period
- Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Clock
- Materials / technique
- Bronce Bronce
- Dimensions
- Altura = 39 cm Anchura = 29,50 cm Profundidad = 10 cm
- Holding institution
- National Museum of Romanticism
- Accession / object no.
- pages_Main_idt_30494_inventary_CE8460_table_FMUS_museum_MNR
- Credit line
- National Museum of Romanticism
- Catalogue title (original)
- Reloj (Spanish)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by National Museum of Romanticism (object number pages_Main_idt_30494_inventary_CE8460_table_FMUS_museum_MNR), this is a clock, dated 1826–1875 (mid-19th century). The Atlas places it in the Industrial Revolution period (1850 – 1900) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Bronce Bronce. Recorded dimensions: Altura = 39 cm Anchura = 29,50 cm Profundidad = 10 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
Maquinaria del tipo París. Motor a resorte con ocho días de cuerda. Escape de áncora con péndulo compensado de varillas. Suspensión de cuchilla, sonería de horas y medias, por sistema de rueda contadera, sobre campana. Sobremesa de bronce dorado. A la izquierda, una figura femenina estante, en posición frontal y ligero contrapposto, junto a un piano, a la derecha, sobre el que se apoya una partitura abierta con notas musicales grabadas. El piano aloja la esfera del reloj, de metal dorado, con marco moldurado de ovas, rodeado de rocallas, que se prolongan en el remate a modo de tornapunta. La dama, con el cabello recogido en sendas guedejas que enmarcan su rostro, ladea la cabeza hacia el papel que sostiene con la mano derecha, en actitud de leer, mientras toca el teclado del piano con la otra. Viste corpiño de amplio escote, mangas anchas con puntillas y falda con sobrefalda abierta por delante, largas y de amplios pliegues. El conjunto se apoya sobre un basamento troncopiramidal, decorado con motivos en altorelieve sobre fondo granulado: en el frente, dos cornucopias florales confrontadas en torno a un motivo floral, flanqueadas por palmetas y roleos, y en los lados, relieves similares. Se sustenta sobre patas con forma de voluta y decoración vegetal. Este reloj de sobremesa alude simbólicamente a la música. Pertenece a una tipología que surge en Francia a finales del siglo XVIII, coincidiendo su desarrollo con el movimiento del Neoclasicismo durante el primer tercio del siglo XIX. De ahí que se pueda contextualizar dentro del estilo Imperio (1800-1830), junto a otros relojes del Museo del Romanticismo (Inv. CE0243, CE0860 y CE7418); considerado continuación del estilo Luis XVI, toma de éste el gusto por las formas propias de la Antigüedad greco-romana y del misterioso Egipto. La expansión del Imperio napoleónico lleva consigo su introducción en otros países. A España llega de forma tardía durante el reinado de Fernando VII (1814-1833), del que toma el nombre de estilo Fernandino. Es Francia la que produce los más bellos ejemplares de relojes de sobremesa debido al auge que alcanza la industria relojera en este momento. A la perfección técnica de la maquinaria parisina se unen la construcción esmerada de la caja y la exquisitez decorativa, fruto de la colaboración de artesanos especializados que interpretaban con el mejor gusto el concepto artístico de cada estilo. En el Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas se conserva un ejemplar similar a éste: CE06291.
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
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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