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Early 20th century calendar clock rehoused into a later mahogany casing — view 1 of 1
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Clocks · Clock

Early 20th century calendar clock rehoused into a later mahogany casing

DocumentedDocumented from an auction catalogue; attribution as stated by the auction house.
Maker / attribution
Unrecorded in source
Date
Early 20th century
Country of origin
Unrecorded in source
Object type
Clock
Materials / technique
mahogany
Dimensions
Height 13.25 in (34 cm)
Lot
Sale 29, lot 1512
Credit line
Auction lot record: lot 1512, Fine Clocks, Gardiner Houlgate (25th May 2023)
Catalogue title (original)
Early 20th century calendar clock rehoused into a later mahogany casing, the 4.75" white clock dial with Pons movement striking on a bell and signed Lepine á Paris no. 1833, over the perpetual calenda (English)

View the source record (auction lot) ↗ (opens another website in a new tab)Suggest a correction

Record summary

Catalogued by Gardiner Houlgate (auction house), Corsham (lot Sale 29, lot 1512), this is a clock, dated Early 20th century. The Atlas places it in the Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking period (1900 – 1945) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: mahogany. Recorded dimensions: Height 13.25 in (34 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

Lot description — Gardiner Houlgate

Early 20th century calendar clock rehoused into a later mahogany casing, the 4.75" white clock dial with Pons movement striking on a bell and signed Lepine á Paris no. 1833, over the perpetual calendar dial with 4.75" chapter ring displaying years and leap years enclosing a recessed centre with days of the week, months of the year and dates of the month subsidiary dials under a moon phase aperture, within a plain case upon a stepped plinth, 13.25" high (pendulum and key)

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

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:Verge escapementAnchor (recoil) escapementFoliot

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