Clocks · Clock
Clock, c. 1732 - c. 1737
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- c. 1732 - c. 1737
- Historical period
- Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Clock
- Materials / technique
- porcelain
- Dimensions
- height 13 cm x diameter 15 cm
- Holding institution
- Rijksmuseum
- Accession / object no.
- BK-17341
- Credit line
- Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
- Catalogue title (original)
- Klok van een carillon, veelkleurig beschilderd met een Kakiemon-decor (Dutch)
View the source record ↗ (opens another website in a new tab)Suggest a correction
Record summary
Held and catalogued by Rijksmuseum (object number BK-17341), this is a clock, dated c. 1732 - c. 1737. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: porcelain. Recorded dimensions: height 13 cm x diameter 15 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
Description — Rijksmuseum (Dutch)
Klok van een carillon, van veelkleurig beschilderd porselein. De klok is beschilderd met een leeuw, een vliegende draak en takken met Indianische Blumen. Bovenop zijn bloemen in blauw en geel op een groen ondergrond geschilderd en langs de mondrand en op de schouder een ornamentrand in goud. De klok is gemerkt.
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 An editor-reviewed English translation has not yet been published; we do not publish machine translations as authoritative text.
Inscriptions & marks
factory mark: ‘AR’
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
Astronomical, musical and automaton clocks
Astronomical clocks display more than the hour: the positions of the sun and moon in the zodiac, the phase of the moon, the calendar, sometimes the planets and eclipses. From Richard of Wallingford's and Giovanni de' Dondi's fourteenth-century clocks to the Prague Orloj and the Strasbourg cathedral clocks, they demonstrated the order of the cosmos. Renaissance makers in Augsburg and Nuremberg built celestial globe clocks and monstrance clocks as princely treasures.
Automaton and musical clocks entertained as well as informed: figures move, birds sing, organs and carillons play tunes from pinned cylinders. The eighteenth-century trade with China ('sing-songs') and Ottoman Turkey created a market for elaborate English, Swiss and French automata.
What to look for
- Subsidiary dials for moon phase, calendar, zodiac and planetary positions.
- Celestial globes or armillary spheres turned by the movement.
- Pinned cylinders, bellows and pipes or bells for music.
- Figures on cams and levers; separate trains for automaton work.
Dating clues
- Renaissance astronomical table and globe clocks: c. 1550–1650.
- English and Swiss automaton clocks for the Chinese market: c. 1760–1820.
- Picture clocks (clockwork pictures) are mostly nineteenth century.
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.
Read next:Verge escapementFusee
Related records
Clocks · Early 17th century
Table clock, probably Denmark, early 17th century
German Clock Museum
Clocks · 1590–1610
Clock, France, 1590–1610
MAK – Museum of Applied Arts
Clocks · c. 1600
Table Clock, sheet brass, engraved, pierced and gilt, Paris, ca.1600, signed 'B(?) Pichard, à Paris'
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Clocks · 1598–1603
Circular table-clock with calendrical and lunar indications made by Nicholas Vallin in London between 1598 and 1603.
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · 1600–1699
Clock by Joannes Volcker, Belgium, 1600–1699 (no. AP_10156031)
Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage
Clocks · 1600–1699
Clock by Joannes Volcker, Belgium, 1600–1699 (no. AP_10156032)
Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage
Clocks · 1600–1699
Clock attributed to Jobst Bürgi, Czech Republic, 1600–1699
Fine Arts Museum Vienna
Clocks · 1600–1700
Clock, Germany, 1600–1700
Victoria and Albert Museum, London