Clocks · Cuckoo clock
Cuckoo clock, 1896
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- 1896
- Historical period
- Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Cuckoo clock
- Dimensions
- Höhe: 50.0 cm, Breite: 43.0 cm, Tiefe: 18.0 cm
- Holding institution
- Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe
- Accession / object no.
- 95/1253 (Inventarnummer)
- Credit line
- Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe
- Catalogue title (original)
- Kuckucksuhr in Form eines Bahnwärterhäuschens (German)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe (object number 95/1253 (Inventarnummer)), this is a cuckoo clock, dated 1896. The Atlas places it in the Industrial Revolution period (1850 – 1900) of its Clocks collection. Recorded dimensions: Höhe: 50.0 cm, Breite: 43.0 cm, Tiefe: 18.0 cm. 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 Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe
Die Kuckucksuhr hat die Form eines badischen Bahnwärterhäuschens mit vorspringendem Dach, geometrisch intarsierten Schmuckleisten und seitlichem Rankenwerk. Die Vorlage zu den Uhrgehäuse stammt von dem Karlsruher Baurates Professor Friedrich Eisenlohr (1805-1854) von 1850. Das Werk der Uhr ist ein metallgespindeltes Messingräderwerk, die Gangdauer beträgt einen Tag. Sie besitzt ein Federzug, Schwarzwälder Blechankergang, Schlagfeder, ein gedrechseltes Zifferblatt mit aufgelegten emaillierten Metallziffern und Hornzeiger. Eine Widmungszeile unterhalb des Zifferblattes lautet: "Gewerbeverein Vöhrenbach zum 70. Geburtstage 1896".Die Uhr ist ein Geschenk des Vöhrenbacher Gewerbevereins zum 70. Geburtstag Großherzog Friedrichs I. von Baden (1826-1907) am 09.09.1896 und wurde von einer Delegation "Schwarzwälder Gewerbe" anlässlich der Feierlichkeiten am 10.09.1896 überreicht.
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 An editor-reviewed English translation has not yet been published; we do not publish machine translations as authoritative text.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
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
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
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