Clocks · Cuckoo clock
Cuckoo clock, c. 1730
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- c. 1730
- Historical period
- Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Cuckoo clock
- Dimensions
- Höhe: 38.0 cm, Breite: 17.0 cm, Tiefe: 22.0 cm
- Holding institution
- Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe
- Accession / object no.
- Sp 4614-1 (Inventarnummer)
- Credit line
- Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe
- Catalogue title (original)
- Kuckucksuhr mit Kuhschwanzpendel (German)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe (object number Sp 4614-1 (Inventarnummer)), this is a cuckoo clock, dated c. 1730. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Clocks collection. Recorded dimensions: Höhe: 38.0 cm, Breite: 17.0 cm, Tiefe: 22.0 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 ist eine Holzräderuhr mit Kuhschwanzpendel, Holzzeigern und einem papierbeklebten Holzschild mit barockem Giebelaufsatz. Das Uhrschild besitzt zwei Ziffernringe, innen mit großen römischen Stundenziffern, außen mit kleinen arabischen Minutenziffern. Im Giebelaufsatz befindet sich eine kleine Tür, hinter der sich die Kuckucksfigur befindet. Diese Uhr ist die früheste Kuckucksuhr aus dem Schwarzwald, die sich bis heute erhalten hat.
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 An editor-reviewed English translation has not yet been published; we do not publish machine translations as authoritative text.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
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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