Clocks · Travelling clock
Grande sonnerie carriage clock no. 1608 by Vulliamy
- Maker / attribution
- Vulliamy (maker)
- Date
- c. 1843
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Object type
- Travelling clock
- Dimensions
- Overall: 240 x 142 x 125 mm
- Holding institution
- Royal Museums Greenwich
- Accession / object no.
- ZAA0251
- Credit line
- National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
- Catalogue title (original)
- Grande sonnerie carriage clock no. 1608 (English)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by Royal Museums Greenwich (object number ZAA0251), this is a travelling clock by Vulliamy, made in England, dated c. 1843. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Recorded dimensions: Overall: 240 x 142 x 125 mm. 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
Catalogue description — Royal Museums Greenwich
A grande sonnerie carriage clock, No. 1608, by Vulliamy of London, made circa 1843 The twin chain fusee movement has a lever platform escapement and strikes the quarters followed by the hour every fifteen minutes. The veneered case has an ebonised finish and is surmounted by a brass carrying handle. The silvered brass dial has a finely engine-turned centre with Roman numerals and subsidiary seconds dial. The clock is kept in a velvet-lined leather bound travelling case with glazed aperture to view the dial.
Historical context
Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
Harrison solves longitude; Mudge invents the lever; Breguet's Paris workshop defines the modern watch.
The age of the deadbeat escapement, compensated pendulums and observatory regulators. Domestic clocks spread through the middle classes: English longcase and bracket clocks, French gilt-bronze mantel clocks, Viennese Biedermeier wall clocks, Black Forest painted-shield clocks, and the first American shelf clocks.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Early Modern Horology
Atlas type guide
Carriage and travel clocks
The carriage clock is a portable spring clock with a balance-wheel escapement and a brass case with glass panels and a carrying handle. Abraham-Louis Breguet made early examples around 1800, and from the 1830s Paul Garnier and other French makers industrialised production, with the small towns of Saint-Nicolas-d'Aliermont and the Franche-Comté supplying movements for retailers worldwide.
Typical features include a platform escapement mounted horizontally on top of the movement (usually a lever, sometimes cylinder or Garnier's chaff-cutter), striking or repeating work, and alarms. English carriage clocks, generally larger and with fusees, were made by firms such as Frodsham and Dent. Travel clocks in folding leather cases became popular in the twentieth century.
What to look for
- A platform escapement visible through the top glass.
- Case styles: corniche, gorge, anglaise, obis or engraved cases.
- Repeat buttons on top and strike/silent levers.
- Stamps of movement makers (e.g. Drocourt, Jacot, Margaine, Richard & Co.) on the backplate.
Dating clues
- Early carriage clocks with Breguet or Garnier features: c. 1800–1850.
- Mass-produced French carriage clocks: c. 1850–1914.
- Folding travel clocks and alarm travel clocks: mostly 1920–1970.
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:Detached lever escapement
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