Clocks · Clock
Clock, Norway, 1680–1700
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- 1680–1700
- Historical period
- Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
- Country of origin
- Norway
- Place
- Storbritannia
- Object type
- Clock
- Materials / technique
- Saget Hengslet Metallarbeid Tappet Plugget Gjæret Støpt Stanset Finert Dreid Profilert Beiset Fernissert Eik Furu Messing Jern Nøttetre Løvtre Glass Eik/nøttefiner Urskive:Messing/Lodd:Bly
- Dimensions
- 204.0 cm Høyde 45.0 cm Bredde 23.0 cm Dybde
- Holding institution
- The Norwegian Museum of Cultural History
- Accession / object no.
- NF.1919-0443 011023146154
- Credit line
- The Norwegian Museum of Cultural History
- Catalogue title (original)
- Ur (Norwegian)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by The Norwegian Museum of Cultural History (object number NF.1919-0443 011023146154), this is a clock, made in Storbritannia, Norway, dated 1680–1700. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Saget Hengslet Metallarbeid Tappet Plugget Gjæret Støpt Stanset Finert Dreid Profilert Beiset Fernissert Eik Furu Messing Jern Nøttetre Løvtre Glass Eik/nøttefiner Urskive:Messing/Lodd:Bly. Recorded dimensions: 204.0 cm Høyde 45.0 cm Bredde 23.0 cm Dybde. 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
Catalogue description from The Norwegian Museum of Cultural History
Gulvur med rektangulært toppstykke og finert klokkekasse. På dør og toppstykke intarsia med blomsterornamenter,vaser og fugl. Svarte profillister. Urverk av messingskive med svarte romertall; støpte messingornamenter i hjørnene fremstiller amoriner løftende en krone. Klokkekassens øverste del har vinduer inn til urverket på sidene.
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 An editor-reviewed English translation has not yet been published; we do not publish machine translations as authoritative text.
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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