Clocks · Cuckoo / Black Forest clock
Cuckoo / black forest clock by Gebr. Lehnis, Germany, 1900
- Maker / attribution
- Gebr. Lehnis (creator)
- Date
- 1900
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- Germany
- Place
- Hornberg
- Object type
- Cuckoo / Black Forest clock
- Holding institution
- German Clock Museum
- Accession / object no.
- Museu_ProvidedCHO_museum_digital_19541__technical_number_
- Catalogue title (original)
- Kuckucksuhr, Jagdstück, Schwarzwald um 1900 (German)
Record summary
Held and catalogued by German Clock Museum (object number Museu_ProvidedCHO_museum_digital_19541__technical_number_), this is a cuckoo / black forest clock by Gebr. Lehnis, made in Hornberg, Germany, dated 1900. The Atlas places it in the Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking period (1900 – 1945) of its Clocks collection. The record is illustrated with 1 photograph.
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 German Clock Museum (German)
Geschnitzte Kuckucksuhren mit Motiven aus der Welt der Jäger werden im Schwarzwald traditionell als Jagdstück bezeichnet. Zu jeder Stunde schaut ein Kuckuck zum Türchen heraus und verkündet die Uhrzeit. (Deutsches Uhrenmuseum Furtwangen)
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 An editor-reviewed English translation has not yet been published; we do not publish machine translations as authoritative text.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
Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
The wristwatch displaces the pocket watch; waterproof cases, self-winding and grand complications.
Between 1900 and 1945 clocks were electrified: master-clock systems ran factories and offices, synchronous mains clocks entered homes, and the Shortt free-pendulum clock set new standards of accuracy before the first quartz clocks (1927). Art Deco design reshaped mantel and table clocks.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Industrial Revolution
Atlas type guide
Black Forest and cuckoo clocks
Clockmaking spread through the Black Forest in south-west Germany in the late seventeenth century as a winter occupation for farming families. Early clocks had wooden plates and wheels and a foliot ('Waaguhr') or short pendulum, with a painted wooden shield dial; pedlars (Uhrenträger) carried them across Europe. The cuckoo clock, which imitates the bird's call with two small bellows-driven pipes, appeared in the mid-eighteenth century.
The industry was organised around Furtwangen, Triberg, Schwenningen and Lenzkirch. The Furtwangen clockmaking school (1850) introduced the railway-house cuckoo clock design, and from the late nineteenth century factories such as Junghans, Kienzle and Hamburg-Amerikanische Uhrenfabrik produced clocks by the million. The German Clock Museum in Furtwangen preserves the region's history.
What to look for
- Wooden plates and wheels (earlier) versus brass movements (later).
- Painted shield dials (Lackschilduhr) with floral or figurative decoration.
- Cuckoo bellows and pipes, the carved 'railway house' or hunting-scene case.
- Trademarks and movement stamps of Black Forest factories.
Dating clues
- Wooden-wheeled foliot clocks: c. 1680–1750.
- Painted shield clocks: c. 1780–1880.
- Railway-house cuckoo clocks: after 1850; carved hunting-style cases after c. 1860.
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:FoliotAnchor (recoil) escapement
Related records
Clocks · 1900
Alarm clock by Union Clock Company, Germany, 1900
German Clock Museum
Clocks · 1900
Clock by Josef Münzer, Germany, 1900
German Clock Museum
Clocks · 1900
Clock by Mathias Bäuerle, Germany, 1900
German Clock Museum
Clocks · 1900
Mantel clock by A. G. für Uhrenfabrikation Lenzkirch, Germany, 1900
German Clock Museum
Clocks · 1900
Regulator clock, Germany, 1900
German Clock Museum
Clocks · 1900
Table clock by Emilian Wehrle & Co., Germany, 1900
German Clock Museum
Clocks · 1900
Table clock, Germany, 1900
German Clock Museum
Clocks · 1900
Wall clock by Engelbert Schonhardt, Germany, 1900
German Clock Museum