Clocks · Clock
Clock by Caja: Bonna Frères, Caja de reloj:1760-1789Maquinaria:1850-1
- Maker / attribution
- Caja: Bonna Frères (Maker)
- Date
- Caja de reloj:1760-1789Maquinaria:1850-1899
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Place
- Ginebra Francia
- Object type
- Clock
- Materials / technique
- Mármol Bronce Vidrio Porcelana Esmalte Acero Latón Acero
- Dimensions
- Altura = 48 cm Anchura = 34 cm Profundidad = 11 cmEsfera de reloj: Diámetro = 14 cm
- Holding institution
- National Museum of Decorative Arts
- Accession / object no.
- pages_Main_idt_5686_inventary_CE05672_table_FMUS_museum_MNAD
- Credit line
- National Museum of Decorative Arts
- Catalogue title (original)
- Reloj de sobremesa (Spanish)
View the source record ↗ (opens another website in a new tab)Suggest a correction
Record summary
Held and catalogued by National Museum of Decorative Arts (object number pages_Main_idt_5686_inventary_CE05672_table_FMUS_museum_MNAD), this is a clock by Caja: Bonna Frères, made in Ginebra Francia, dated Caja de reloj:1760-1789Maquinaria:1850-1899. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Mármol Bronce Vidrio Porcelana Esmalte Acero Latón Acero. Recorded dimensions: Altura = 48 cm Anchura = 34 cm Profundidad = 11 cmEsfera de reloj: Diámetro = 14 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 Decorative Arts
Reloj de mármol blanco y bronce dorado con decoración de dos plaquetas de porcelana azul con siluetas femeninas, incrustadas en los dos flancos laterales del reloj, que forman una especie de lira estilizada. El centro lo ocupa el reloj, decorado con faldones de bronce dorado y calado. La esfera es de porcelana blanca, enmarcada en cordoncillo dorado, con cristal practicable, cifras horarias romanas.
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 An editor-reviewed English translation has not yet been published; we do not publish machine translations as authoritative text.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