Clocks · Clock
Clock, Jasperware with applied reliefs and brass, Josiah Wedgwood and Sons, Etruria, ca.1880
- Maker / attribution
- Josiah Wedgwood and Sons (manufacturers)
- Date
- ca. 1880
- Historical period
- Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Place
- Etruria
- Object type
- Clock
- Materials / technique
- Jasperware, applied relief, brass
- Dimensions
- Height: 434 mm (whole); Width: 122 mm (whole); Length: 240 mm (whole)
- Holding institution
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- Accession / object no.
- WE.14679:1-2014
- 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.
Record summary
Held and catalogued by Victoria and Albert Museum, London (object number WE.14679:1-2014), this is a clock by Josiah Wedgwood and Sons, made in Etruria, dated ca. 1880. The Atlas places it in the Industrial Revolution period (1850 – 1900) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Jasperware, applied relief, brass. Recorded dimensions: Height: 434 mm (whole); Width: 122 mm (whole); Length: 240 mm (whole). The record is illustrated with 4 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
Clock, Jasperware with applied reliefs and brass. Jasper ware, a high-fired stoneware, was invented by Josiah Wedgwood in the 1770s. It took his thousands of experiments over several years to perfect the material, which was versatile and could be coloured, cut and polished to great effect on his products.
V&A — Physical description
Clock, jasperware with applied reliefs and brass. Brass clock with inlaid blue jasper plaques with white applied reliefs, and a miniature jasper vase on top. Six inlaid plaques, four on the front below the clock face and on the pedestal of the clock, two either side of the clock. Central plaque shows a group of cupids with various items, the two circular plaques on the feet show two nymphs trying to steal a sleeping cupids arrow, and two classically dressed women with bows. Plaques on either side both show a figure holding a lyre and a paint brush. Miniature vase on top as two handles with ram heads, and two central scenes surrounded by decorative flora decoration. Two fragments, one is likely the pendulum, the other a winding key, both are metal.
V&A gallery label
42.01 Clock with inlaid jasper plaques c. 1880
Inscriptions & marks
JWB / 15267' (impressed on clock mechanism inside)
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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