Clocks · Clock
Clock, black basalt, brass, Josiah Wedgwood and Sons, Etruria, ca. 1900
- Maker / attribution
- Josiah Wedgwood and Sons (manufacturers)
- Date
- ca. 1900
- Historical period
- Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Place
- Etruria
- Object type
- Clock
- Materials / technique
- Black basalt, brass, moulding
- Dimensions
- Height: 175 mm; Width: 165 mm; Depth: 90 mm
- Holding institution
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- Accession / object no.
- WE.14673-2014
- Credit line
- V&A Wedgwood Collection. Presented by Art Fund with major support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, private donations and a public appeal.
Record summary
Held and catalogued by Victoria and Albert Museum, London (object number WE.14673-2014), this is a clock by Josiah Wedgwood and Sons, made in Etruria, dated ca. 1900. The Atlas places it in the Industrial Revolution period (1850 – 1900) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Black basalt, brass, moulding. Recorded dimensions: Height: 175 mm; Width: 165 mm; Depth: 90 mm. The record is illustrated with 2 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
V&A — Summary
Clock, black basalt and brass with moulded decoration. Black basalt is a black stoneware body that was developed by Josiah Wedgwood from the traditional local black pottery in the 1760s and introduced to the market in 1768. It was richer in colour due to the addition of manganese and also finer in texture and very hard due to the use of sifted ball clay and the use of a very high firing temperature. The new clay was ideal for finely turned shapes with polished surfaces and detailed modelling.
V&A — Physical description
Clock, black basalt and brass with moulded decoration; rectangular clock case mounted on rectangular base, exterior decorated with moulded neo classical scenes, figures, and acanthus leaves, base with moulded floral border, brass clock mounted within case.
V&A gallery label
42.07 Clock. Black Basalt case c.1900
Inscriptions & marks
WEDGWOOD / 'MADE IN ENGLAND' (impressed)
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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