Clocks · Clock
Clock, Jasperware with applied reliefs and metal and glass, Josiah Wedgwood and Sons, Stoke on Trent, 20th century (V&A WE.15628-2014)
- Maker / attribution
- Josiah Wedgwood and Sons (manufacturers)
- Date
- 20th century
- Historical period
- Modern Mechanical Horology (1945 – 1969)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Place
- Stoke on Trent
- Object type
- Clock
- Materials / technique
- Jasperware with applied reliefs and metal with glass
- Dimensions
- Height: 83 mm; Width: 27 mm; Diameter: 35 mm (clock face); Length: 74 mm
- Holding institution
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- Accession / object no.
- WE.15628-2014
- 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.15628-2014), this is a clock by Josiah Wedgwood and Sons, made in Stoke on Trent, dated 20th century. The Atlas places it in the Modern Mechanical Horology period (1945 – 1969) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Jasperware with applied reliefs and metal with glass. Recorded dimensions: Height: 83 mm; Width: 27 mm; Diameter: 35 mm (clock face); Length: 74 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, Jasperware with applied reliefs and metal with glass. Rounded arch shaped pink jasper with a rectangle foot. Applied reliefs, one of a floral motif on top of the clock, and a group of cupids on the front below the clock face. Circular white clock face with a gold band around the black roman numerals and hands.
Inscriptions & marks
WEDGWOOD / MADE IN / ENGLAND ®' (impressed); 'HR' (impressed); 'R' (impressed); 'WEDGWOOD / QUARTS' (printed on clock face)
Historical context
Modern Mechanical Horology (1945 – 1969)
Tool watches for divers, pilots and astronauts; electric watches anticipate the electronic age.
Post-war clocks combined new materials and industrial design: plastic and metal cases, battery-powered transistor movements from the late 1950s, and design classics by George Nelson, Max Bill and others. The first caesium atomic clock (1955) moved the definition of time from astronomy to physics.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking
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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