Clocks · Wall clock
Fusee wall clock by Evans, Handsworth, c. 1850
- Maker / attribution
- Evans (maker)
- Date
- c. 1850
- Historical period
- Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- Handsworth
- Object type
- Wall clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany, ebony
- Dimensions
- Height 19 in (48 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 249
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 249)
- Catalogue title (original)
- 19th century Fusee Wall Clock by Evans of Handsworth (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 249), this is a wall clock by Evans, made in Handsworth, England, dated c. 1850. The Atlas places it in the Industrial Revolution period (1850 – 1900) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: mahogany, ebony. Recorded dimensions: Height 19 in (48 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
Dealer description — P A Oxley
A fine quality English fusee wall clock by this noted Skeleton Clock maker. The 8 day duration fusee movement with anchor escapement and shaped plates. The 12" diameter convex white dial with Roman chapters and matching blued steel hands. The mahogany case with glazed convex cast brass bezel and wooden surround. The drop dial case with pendulum window surrounded with ebony and brass inlay. The underside with a lockable access door. Note: William Frederick Evans was a prolific maker of clocks in particular Skeleton Clocks and Turret Clocks. He was born in 1818 and exhibited in 1851 at The Great Exhibition. Maker Evans of Handsworth
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
Regulators, wall and Vienna clocks
A regulator is a precision pendulum clock used as a time standard in observatories, workshops and railway offices. Typical features are a deadbeat or Graham escapement, a temperature-compensated pendulum (mercury jar, gridiron or later invar), maintaining power and a regulator dial that separates hours, minutes and seconds. George Graham's deadbeat escapement (c. 1715) and his mercury pendulum, together with Harrison's gridiron, set the pattern for two centuries.
Wall clocks span a much wider range: the elegant Viennese Laterndluhr and Dachluhr of the Biedermeier period, the Dutch stoelklok and staartklok, English 'dial' clocks used in schools, offices and railway stations, and mass-produced spring and weight wall clocks from Germany (Gustav Becker, Junghans, Kienzle) and America.
What to look for
- Deadbeat escapement and compensated pendulum (gridiron rods, mercury jar or wood rod).
- A regulator dial with a large central minute hand and separate hour and seconds dials.
- Vienna regulators: glazed cases, slender pendulum, small weights, enamel two-piece dials.
- German factory trademarks stamped on the backplate (e.g. Gustav Becker anchor and crown, Junghans star).
Dating clues
- Graham-type deadbeat regulators: from c. 1720.
- Viennese Laterndluhr: c. 1800–1850.
- German factory 'Vienna-style' regulators: c. 1870–1930; Gustav Becker serial numbers allow close dating.
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.
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