Clocks · Clock
Clock with case of tortoiseshell inlaid with brass, Paris, late 17th century
- Maker / attribution
- Antoine Gaudron
- Date
- late 17th century
- Historical period
- Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
- Country of origin
- France
- Place
- Paris
- Object type
- Clock
- Materials / technique
- Case of tortoiseshell inlaid with brass, mounts of chased gilt bronze, and glass panels. Dial of ormolu decorated with foliated strapwork.
- Dimensions
- Height: 66.7 cm; Width: 31 cm; Depth: 17.5 cm
- Holding institution
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- Accession / object no.
- 4:1 to 3-1903
Record summary
Held and catalogued by Victoria and Albert Museum, London (object number 4:1 to 3-1903), this is a clock by Antoine Gaudron, made in Paris, France, dated late 17th century. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Case of tortoiseshell inlaid with brass, mounts of chased gilt bronze, and glass panels. Dial of ormolu decorated with foliated strapwork. Recorded dimensions: Height: 66.7 cm; Width: 31 cm; Depth: 17.5 cm. 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 — Physical description
Case: The case of tortoiseshell with marquetry of brass, mounts of chased gilt bronze and glass panels, mounted in ormolu; the inlay is of foliated scrollwork. The side panels are arched and glazed, with a wooden rear door. The case rests on four claw feet, and decorated with enriched mouldings and corner mounts of acanthus foliage, surmounted by a bell-top supporting a tripod vase of ormolu. Dial: Ormolu dial, 20.3cm in diameter, decorated in relief with foliated strapwork, terminating in monsters, with a bust in a laurel leaf below and two squirrels above. Minutes 1 to 60 engraved at outer edge of the dial. Roman hour figures I to XII are each in blue on a convex white-enamel plaque inset in the dial. Winding holes are inside IIII and VII. Capstan for regulating just above 60. Quarter marks engraved inside the hours, and steel hands, both with tails. The dial is glazed, with an applied gilt-bronze medallion 9.2cm in diameter, with an embossed head of Louis XIV in low relief and inscribed ''LVDOVICVS MAGNVS FRANCORV. REX. 1677', and signed 'Bertinet'. The medallion is surrounded by a wreath. Movement: Plates are 15.3cm wide, 12.7 cm high, the backplate signed 'Gaudon Paris'. Both trains with going barrels. The going train to the right has an internal Brocot escapement with steel pallets and escape wheel of 32T, with a Brocot-type regulator. The pendulum is 27.9cm long, with brass-cased lead lenticular bob 7cm in diameter. Formerly with a verge escapement. The striking train to the left has an outside locking-plate and notches numbered 1 to 12. The bell hammer is missing.
V&A gallery label
Gallery 5A label: Clock French (Paris); late 17th century The case of tortoiseshell with marquetry of brass, mounts of chased gilt bronze and glass panels. The clock signed "Gaudron A Paris". The medallion signed "Bertinet" and dated 1677. The medallion portrait of Louis XIV, in gilt bronze, predates the clock by some years. There were a number of clockmakers called Gaudron working in Paris in the late 17th century.
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.
Read next:Anchor (recoil) escapementFoliot
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