Clocks · Clock
Clock by Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott, Bedfordshire, c.1900
- Maker / attribution
- Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott (designer); J. P. White (makers)
- Date
- c.1900
- Historical period
- Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Place
- Bedfordshire
- Object type
- Clock
- Materials / technique
- Case of mahogany, inlaid with stained woods. The dial of copper
- Dimensions
- Height: 51 cm; Width: 31.5 cm; Depth: 16.7 cm
- Holding institution
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- Accession / object no.
- W.7-1953
- Credit line
- Given by Messrs John White & Sons Ltd, The Pyghtle Works, Bedford
Record summary
Held and catalogued by Victoria and Albert Museum, London (object number W.7-1953), this is a clock by Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott, made in Bedfordshire, dated c.1900. The Atlas places it in the Industrial Revolution period (1850 – 1900) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Case of mahogany, inlaid with stained woods. The dial of copper. Recorded dimensions: Height: 51 cm; Width: 31.5 cm; Depth: 16.7 cm. The record is illustrated with 3 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
Makay Hugh Baillie Scott was primarily an architect, but he also designed interiors and furniture. He believed 'furniture should appear to grow out of the requirements of the room, to represent the finishing touches of a scheme which had its inception when the first stage of the house was laid'. The design for this clock is one of over 80 furniture designs by Baillie Scott featured in a catalogue of his work called A Book of Furniture , produced in 1901. The catalogue was produced by J.P. White, the high class joinery firm of the Pyghtle Works, Bedford, who manufactured much of Baillie Scott’s work. A piano by Baillie Scott, decorated by White, is also in the V & A collections. As with many Arts and Crafts clocks, this clock bears text appropriate to the theme of ‘Time’. The Latin inscription, ‘FESTINA LENTE’, translates as ‘hurry slowly’. This clock is on long-term loan to Blackwell, Cumbria.
V&A — Physical description
Mahogany case inlaid with coloured woods, the inlay including the inscription 'FESTINA LENTE'. Copper dial. Stylised bird motif. Mahogany case inlaid with coloured wo s,e inlay including the inscription 'FESTINA LENTE'. The dial of copper Designed by Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott Made by J P White, The Pyghtle Works, Bedford, about 1900
V&A — Object history
This clock was given to the V&A in 1953 by its makers [53/744]. It had initially been lent to the Museum by John White & Sons for an exhibition of Victorian and Edwardian decorative art. It was lent by the V&A to the Bethnal Green Museum in 1968. In March 2016 this clock was sent on long-term loan to Blackwell, an Arts and Crafts house in Cumbria which was designed by Baillie Scott.
V&A gallery label
Baillie Scott's published designs contributed to the influence of British arts and crafts ideals on Continental art nouveau design, particularly in Vienna. Few recorded examples of his furniture survive, mostly made by J.P. White of Bedford. A piano by Baillie Scott, decorated by White, is on display in the next gallery (room 120).
Inscriptions & marks
FESTINA LENTE
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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