Clocks · Clock
Clock by Matthias Gaill, Germany, 18th century
- Maker / attribution
- Matthias Gaill (Maker)
- Date
- 18th century
- Historical period
- Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
- Country of origin
- Germany
- Place
- Germany
- Object type
- Clock
- Materials / technique
- Case made of gilt metal with a silver dial. The sides of the case are perforated and engaved. The clock hands are made of blued steel.
- Dimensions
- Height: 8.8 cm; Width: 8.3 cm (maximum width); Depth: 5.5 cm; Weight: 781.9 g
- Holding institution
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- Accession / object no.
- 4532-1858
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by Victoria and Albert Museum, London (object number 4532-1858), this is a clock by Matthias Gaill, made in Germany, dated 18th century. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Case made of gilt metal with a silver dial. The sides of the case are perforated and engaved. The clock hands are made of blued steel. Recorded dimensions: Height: 8.8 cm; Width: 8.3 cm (maximum width); Depth: 5.5 cm; Weight: 781.9 g. 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
Physical description — Victoria and Albert Museum
Gilt metal with a silver dial, the clock hands of blued steel; engraved and perforated sides.
Brief description — Victoria and Albert Museum
Gilt-metal and silver, Germany, 18th century, signed by Mattheis Gaill.
Inscriptions & marks
Matthias Gaill
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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