Clocks · Bracket clock
German Black Forest musical cuckoo burr walnut and ebonised table clock by Johann Baptiste Beha, circa 1878
- Maker / attribution
- Johann Baptiste Beha (maker)
- Date
- c. 1878
- Historical period
- Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
- Country of origin
- Germany
- Object type
- Bracket clock
- Materials / technique
- walnut, ebonised
- Dimensions
- Height 28.5 in (72 cm)
- Auction house
- Gardiner Houlgate (auction house), Corsham
- Lot
- Sale 42, lot 1262
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: lot 1262, Fine Clocks & Related Items, Gardiner Houlgate (22nd October 2026)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Exhibition quality rare and impressive German Black Forest musical cuckoo burr walnut and ebonised table clock by Johann Baptiste Beha, circa 1878,6.5" turned wooden dial of a rich patina with applied (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Gardiner Houlgate (auction house), Corsham (lot Sale 42, lot 1262), this is a bracket clock by Johann Baptiste Beha, made in Germany, dated c. 1878. The Atlas places it in the Industrial Revolution period (1850 – 1900) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: walnut, ebonised. Recorded dimensions: Height 28.5 in (72 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
Exhibition quality rare and impressive German Black Forest musical cuckoo burr walnut and ebonised table clock by Johann Baptiste Beha, circa 1878,6.5" turned wooden dial of a rich patina with applied enamelled cartouche Roman numerals in a gilt rimmed and bezel glazed door, intricate carved bone hands, eight day wood plate twin fusee movement with outside countwheel and linkages to two bellows and a cuckoo automaton which appears from behind the door above the dial, with a two-note call alternating with a hammer sounding on a gong fitted to the inside of the rear case panel, strike/silent options via a side door to turn on and off both the spiral gong and the cuckoo sounding, with music box operation on hourly strike, the music box manufactured by Paillard, with a 13" cylinder playing eight airs which can be selected to play just one tune or on a sequential rotation of all eight, with pull repeat to operate the music box on demand, the case of a rich patina with applied carved heraldic and foliate mouldings, 28.5" high, 24" wide, depth 9.5" (please see condition report) ** The George Hollis Collection ** The clock was acquired from Austria and was said to have been in the ownership of a wealthy Italian family many years before this ** Pencil marked information on the pine back board suggests it could have been allocated the catalogue number of 548, but this is an unconfirmed assumption ** Johann Baptist Beha was born in Oberbränd in 1815. He trained in his father's Vinzenz (1784-1868) workshop, but in 1845 at the age of thirty left to set up on his own in Eisenbach
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
Bracket, table and spring-driven clocks
Spring-driven clocks freed timekeeping from the hanging weight. The coiled mainspring, documented from the fifteenth century, made portable table clocks possible; to even out its declining force, makers used the fusee, a conical pulley connected to the barrel by a gut line or chain. Renaissance table clocks from Augsburg and Nuremberg — drum-shaped, square or tower-shaped in gilt brass — were luxury scientific objects, often with astronomical dials and alarms.
After the pendulum, English makers developed the bracket clock: a wooden case with a carrying handle, a short pendulum with a verge escapement, and often repeating work to sound the hours on demand at night. Later examples use the anchor escapement. In the nineteenth century, 'table clock' became a broad term for spring clocks of every nationality.
What to look for
- A fusee in the movement (cone-shaped pulley) and the type of line — gut or chain.
- Verge escapement with a short bob pendulum, often with a decoratively engraved backplate.
- Repeat cords or buttons that make the clock strike again on demand.
- Gilt-brass engraved cases and horizontal dials on Renaissance pieces.
- Case shapes: inverted bell, bell top, break-arch, lancet or balloon.
Dating clues
- Drum and tower table clocks: c. 1520–1650.
- Ebony veneered English bracket clocks with verge escapements: c. 1670–1800.
- Engraved backplates were usual on English clocks until c. 1800, then generally plain.
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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