Clocks · Table clock
German Drum Table-Clock
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- 1581
- Historical period
- Renaissance Horology (1400 – 1600)
- Country of origin
- Germany
- Place
- Germany
- Object type
- Table clock
- Materials / technique
- Iron, silver dial, and steel movement.
- Dimensions
- Diameter: 11.43 cm; Height: 9.14 cm
- Holding institution
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- Accession / object no.
- M.141-1913
- Credit line
- Purchased from the collection of J.H.Fitzhenry, 1913
Record summary
Held and catalogued by Victoria and Albert Museum, London (object number M.141-1913), this is a table clock, made in Germany, dated 1581. The Atlas places it in the Renaissance Horology period (1400 – 1600) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Iron, silver dial, and steel movement. Recorded dimensions: Diameter: 11.43 cm; Height: 9.14 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
V&A — Summary
A gilt metal drum shaped table clock the sides cast and chased with masks and fruit and the bottom engraved with the motto POSVI DEVM AVDITOREM MEVM (I have made God my helper). The silver numeral dial has an iron hand; the clock has a steel movement with a verge escapement.
V&A — Physical description
Case: Gilt-metal drum-shaped case, the side cast and chased with cartouche work and fruit in relief. The base cover punched in the inside 1581 and engraved on the outside with arabesque foliage and including hounds and hares and the motto "posui deum adiutorem meum". The three turned feet missing. This cover is pierced with two winding holes marked W for going train and S for striking train. Dial: Silvered chapter ring (10.4 cm) diameter (possibly a renewal), 1.3 cm broad, through the centre of which protrudes a large bell (7.6 cm diameter). The chapter ring with engraved Roman hours and half-hour marks. Single curved double-ended hour hand, a renewal made in the Museum. Movement: Movement plates 4 inches diameter, iron, the turned pillars are also iron. Going train with fusee of 6 turns and chain and of iron throughout. Plain straight bar balance of dumb-bell shape, probably a renewal. Striking train also of iron throughout, except for a renewed fanfly. Now with an unprotected mainspring but probably formerly with a resting barrel. External count-wheel with internal teeth, driven by reduction gearing from the second wheel of the striking train. Decorative fixed brass cover for the interior of the count-wheel and brass finger pointer indicating the hour last struck.
V&A — Object history
When bought, the clock had a pierced gilt-metal dome covering the bell (attached by three silver clips), three silver lion feet and a female figure with pointer to show the time. These were all modern additions and were removed.
Inscriptions & marks
POSVI DEVM ADIVTOREM MEVM
Historical context
Renaissance Horology (1400 – 1600)
Spring power makes clocks portable; Nuremberg and Augsburg produce the first watches; the Prague Orloj is built.
Spring power made the domestic clock portable. Augsburg and Nuremberg produced gilt-brass table clocks, often with astronomical dials and alarms; weight-driven Gothic wall clocks and English lantern clocks served households. Clocks of this period have foliot or balance-wheel control and usually only an hour hand.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Medieval Period
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.
Read next:Anchor (recoil) escapement
Related records
Clocks · 1400–1499
Alarm clock, Germany, 1400–1499
German Clock Museum
Clocks · 1400-1499
Lantern clock, Germany, 1400-1499
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · 1500–1599
Table clock by Rutenieg, Valentin (um 1550) (Uhrmacher), Germany, 1500–1599
City Museum Berlin
Clocks · 1501-1600
German 16th century iron chamber clock
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · ca.1550
Clock, a striking alarm clock in a gilt brass case, Germany, ca.1550.
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Clocks · 1552
Carriage / travel clock, Germany, 1552
German Clock Museum
Clocks · 1560
Carriage / travel clock by HG, Germany, 1560
German Clock Museum
Clocks · 1564
Clock, gilt brass with enamelled silver dial ring, signed by Jeremias Metzger, Augsburg, southern Germany, dated 1564
Victoria and Albert Museum, London