Clocks · Alarm clock
Goblin Teasmade by Goblin (BVC) Limited
- Maker / attribution
- Goblin (BVC) Limited (Made by)
- Date
- 1977–1980
- Historical period
- Quartz Revolution (1969 – 1990)
- Country of origin
- British Isles
- Place
- Leatherhead
- Object type
- Alarm clock
- Materials / technique
- plastic
- Holding institution
- British Museum
- Accession / object no.
- 2005,0718.1
- Credit line
- British Museum, London
- Catalogue title (original)
- Goblin Teasmade by Goblin (BVC) Limited (English)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by British Museum (object number 2005,0718.1), this is an alarm clock by Goblin (BVC) Limited, made in Leatherhead, British Isles, dated 1977–1980. The Atlas places it in the Quartz Revolution period (1969 – 1990) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: plastic. 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
Description — British Museum
Goblin Teasmade An electrically powered alarm clock with automatic tea-making device. White-plastic case with a rectangular dial on the front. At the left-hand end a wheel for adjusting the alarm setting hand. Chapter ring with painted minute circle and baton marks at the hours. White plastic hour and minute hands, orange plastic alarm setting hand. In the fromnt are push-buttons for operating the machine. At the back, a jug for the water on the chrome-plated jug for water and on the right a ceramic teapot.
Curator's comments — British Museum
The model 860 was launched in 1977 and made Castlereagh Northern Ireland.
Inscriptions & marks
inscription; dial front; GOBLIN Teasmade; maker's mark; on a metal plate at the back of the case; GOBLIN (BVC) LTD MADE IN THE UK; Model/serial466026; 200-250 volts ~ 50Hz 440 - 685 W; PAT.APPD FOR; maker's mark; impressed in base of teapot; KP; GOBLIN; MADE IN; ENGLAND
Provenance
Donated by:, Guy Parks
Historical context
Quartz Revolution (1969 – 1990)
Seiko's Astron begins mass quartz timekeeping; traditional industries contract sharply.
Quartz movements and digital displays made accurate clocks cheap and ubiquitous after the early 1970s. LED and LCD clocks, clock radios and radio-controlled clocks appeared, while traditional mechanical clockmaking contracted sharply in Germany, France and Britain.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Modern Mechanical Horology
Atlas type guide
Alarm clocks
Alarm work is among the oldest clock functions: monastic clocks woke monks for night prayers, and Renaissance table clocks often carried an alarm disc set by a pin. A separate spring or weight is released at the set time and drives a hammer against a bell. Some early alarms also lit a candle by striking a flint — the 'tinder pistol' alarm.
The cheap, mass-produced alarm clock arrived in the second half of the nineteenth century. American firms such as Seth Thomas and Westclox (the 'Big Ben' of 1910) and German makers such as Junghans and Kienzle made millions of drum-shaped alarms with pin-pallet escapements. Electric, quartz and digital alarm clocks followed in the twentieth century.
What to look for
- A separate alarm-setting dial or disc and an extra winding key.
- Twin bells on top (common after c. 1920) or a bell enclosed in the base.
- Pin-pallet escapements in inexpensive factory alarms.
- Trademarks and patent dates on dial or back.
Dating clues
- Renaissance alarm table clocks: sixteenth to seventeenth centuries.
- Drum alarm clocks: from the 1870s.
- Luminous dials with radium paint: c. 1910–1960.
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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