Clocks · Clock
Clock, Earthenware with transfer printing and gilding, metal and glass, Josiah Wedgwood & Sons and Ralph Lauren, Barlaston,1989
- Maker / attribution
- Josiah Wedgwood and Sons (Manufacturers)
- Date
- 1989
- Historical period
- Quartz Revolution (1969 – 1990)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Place
- Barlaston
- Object type
- Clock
- Materials / technique
- Earthenware with transfer printing and gilding, metal and glass
- Dimensions
- Height: 130 mm; Diameter: 62 mm (clock face); Length: 135 mm
- Holding institution
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- Accession / object no.
- WE.18585-2014
- Credit line
- V&A Wedgwood Collection. Presented by Art Fund with major support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, private donations and a public appeal.
- Catalogue title (original)
- Clarendon
Record summary
Held and catalogued by Victoria and Albert Museum, London (object number WE.18585-2014), this is a clock by Josiah Wedgwood and Sons, made in Barlaston, dated 1989. The Atlas places it in the Quartz Revolution period (1969 – 1990) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Earthenware with transfer printing and gilding, metal and glass. Recorded dimensions: Height: 130 mm; Diameter: 62 mm (clock face); Length: 135 mm. The record is illustrated with 2 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 — Physical description
Clock, Earthenware with transfer printing and gilding, metal and glass. Mantle clock, front and sides has a dark green highland tartan pattern with gilding to edges. Back of clock and base is a cream earthenware. Circular clock face in front, with a gilded edge and black numbers and clock hands.
Inscriptions & marks
RALPH LAUREN / CLARENDON / © Polo Ralph Lauren 1989' (circular marking in gold, with horse polo symbol); 'WEDGWOOD ® / MADE IN ENGLAND' (marked in gold); 'WEDGWOOD / QUARTZ / MADE IN ENGLAND' (printed in black on clock face)
Historical context
Quartz Revolution (1969 – 1990)
Seiko's Astron begins mass quartz timekeeping; traditional industries contract sharply.
Quartz movements and digital displays made accurate clocks cheap and ubiquitous after the early 1970s. LED and LCD clocks, clock radios and radio-controlled clocks appeared, while traditional mechanical clockmaking contracted sharply in Germany, France and Britain.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Modern Mechanical 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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