Clocks · Clock
Hashira Dokei Japanese Pillar Clock c. 1840
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- c. 1840
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- Japan
- Object type
- Clock
- Auction house
- LiveAuctioneers auction archive
- Lot
- Item 27462204
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: lot 111, Decorative & Fine Arts No Reserves Day 1 of 3, Kamelot Auctions (2014), via LiveAuctioneers
- Catalogue title (original)
- HASHIRA DOKEI JAPANESE PILLAR CLOCK C.1840 (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by LiveAuctioneers auction archive (lot Item 27462204), this is a clock, made in Japan, dated c. 1840. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. 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
Lot description — Kamelot Auctions
A very unique and unusual hashira dokei (Japanese pillar clock) on base circa 1840. Having a beautifully engraved and pierced front plate integral key and richly decorated case. These clocks were used to measure temporal hours (daylight) and as such have adjustable seasonal markers on throat. Ht: 22" Width: 7" Depth: 6"
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
Japanese clocks (wadokei)
Mechanical clocks reached Japan with European missionaries in the sixteenth century. During the Edo period (1603–1868) Japanese makers adapted them to the native system of unequal temporal hours: daylight and night were each divided into six hours whose length changed with the seasons. Clockmakers solved this with movable hour numerals, double foliots (one for day, one for night) or, on pillar clocks, sliding hour plaques along a vertical scale.
Common forms include the lantern-style yagura-dokei on a pyramidal stand, the bracket-like makura-dokei, and the narrow shaku-dokei (pillar clock) whose weight-driven pointer descends a scale. The temporal system was abolished in 1873 when Japan adopted Western time reckoning, and wadokei production ceased soon after.
What to look for
- Hour numerals in the twelve zodiac animal signs or numbers nine to four.
- Movable hour plaques or a dial with adjustable hour markers.
- Double foliot balances at the top of the movement.
- Brass movements with fine engraving and lacquered wooden cases.
Dating clues
- Double foliots appear from the late seventeenth century.
- Pillar clocks are typical of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
- Production ended after the 1873 calendar reform.
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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