Clocks · Clock
Clock by Joseph Windmill, England, 1700–1725
- Maker / attribution
- Joseph Windmill (maker)
- Date
- 1700–1725
- Historical period
- Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Clock
- Materials / technique
- Wood, veneered with mirror glass, glass columns at the corners; movement of brass and iron
- Dimensions
- Height: 55.5 cm; Width: 43 cm; Depth: 27.5 cm
- Holding institution
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- Accession / object no.
- W.30-1964
- Credit line
- Given by Brigadier W. E. Clark CMG, DSO through Art Fund
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by Victoria and Albert Museum, London (object number W.30-1964), this is a clock by Joseph Windmill, made in London, England, dated 1700–1725. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Wood, veneered with mirror glass, glass columns at the corners; movement of brass and iron. Recorded dimensions: Height: 55.5 cm; Width: 43 cm; Depth: 27.5 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
Summary — Victoria and Albert Museum
The panels of mirror glass covering the wooden case make this a spectacular and unusual clock. Octagonal glass columns at each of the corners, with brass capitals and bases, add to the effect. Joseph Windmills was one of the most highly-skilled London clockmakers working at the end of the 1600s. In about 1700 he went into partnership with his son, after which they signed their work simply ‘Windmills’, as on this clock.
Physical description — Victoria and Albert Museum
Bracket clock of wood, veneered with mirror glass.
Brief description — Victoria and Albert Museum
BRACKET CLOCK; Wood case with panels of mirror glass; Signed on the dial: ‘Windmills LONDON’
Provenance
Given by Brigadier W.E. Clark DSO, through The Art Fund (Registered File 64/2463). Noted at that time that the urn finials appeared to be replacements but 'are more or less in character'.
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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