Clocks · Clock
Clock by Meissen Porcelain Manufactory, United States, 1727–30
- Maker / attribution
- Meissen Porcelain Manufactory (maker)
- Date
- 1727–30
- Historical period
- Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
- Country of origin
- United States
- Place
- Meissen
- Object type
- Clock
- Materials / technique
- Hard-paste porcelain, polychrome enamels, and gilding
- Dimensions
- 51.2 × 43.9 × 20.7 cm (20 1/8 × 17 1/4 × 8 1/8 in.)
- Holding institution
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Accession / object no.
- 1989.538.1
- Credit line
- Joseph Maier and Arthur Lewis Liebman Memorial: Gift of Kenneth J. Maier, M.D.
- Catalogue title (original)
- Clock (English)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by Art Institute of Chicago (object number 1989.538.1), this is a clock by Meissen Porcelain Manufactory, made in Meissen, United States, dated 1727–30. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Hard-paste porcelain, polychrome enamels, and gilding. Recorded dimensions: 51.2 × 43.9 × 20.7 cm (20 1/8 × 17 1/4 × 8 1/8 in.). 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
Description — Art Institute of Chicago
This rare, monumental clock resembles German case clocks of the period that incorporated Baroque architectural motifs. The chinioserie decoration is rendered in the manner of Johann Gregorius Höroldt, who was the chief painter at Meissen and largely responsible for the early success of the factory.
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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