Clocks · Clock
'IN ON TIME 4' wall clock, porcelain, by Matsumoto Hideo (1951-), Japan, 1994
- Maker / attribution
- Hideo Matsumoto (maker)
- Date
- 1994
- Historical period
- Mechanical Renaissance (1990 – 2010)
- Country of origin
- Japan
- Place
- Japan
- Object type
- Clock
- Materials / technique
- Porcelain, painted and glazed
- Dimensions
- Width: 35.3 cm; Height: 35.6 cm; Depth: 4.0 cm
- Holding institution
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- Accession / object no.
- FE.18-1995
- Credit line
- Given by Miharudo Gallery
- Catalogue title (original)
- IN ON TIME 4
Record summary
Held and catalogued by Victoria and Albert Museum, London (object number FE.18-1995), this is a clock by Hideo Matsumoto, made in Japan, dated 1994. The Atlas places it in the Mechanical Renaissance period (1990 – 2010) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Porcelain, painted and glazed. Recorded dimensions: Width: 35.3 cm; Height: 35.6 cm; Depth: 4.0 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
V&A — Physical description
Wall clock of porcelain. Square panel with small curved and circular components attached to the four corners; battery operated clock mechanism fixed behind, hour/minute/second hands of brass; pair of black foam spacers glued to lower part of reverse. Slab-built porcelain with hand-modelled corner components; abstract patterning executed in purplish blue ceramic pigments and oxides; transparent lime-fluxed glaze on front; oxidation fired to 1240 degrees centigrade in an electric kiln.
V&A gallery label
Wall clock, ‘IN ON TIME 4’ 1994 Matsumoto Hideo (born 1951) Kyoto Porcelain painted in underglaze blue Gift of Miharudō Gallery Museum no. FE.18-1995
Inscriptions & marks
Maker's mark impressed on reverse
Historical context
Mechanical Renaissance (1990 – 2010)
Mechanical watches return as cultural objects; independent watchmaking flourishes.
Mechanical clocks returned as luxury and craft objects, alongside radio-controlled and designer quartz clocks. Independent makers and restorers revived traditional techniques, and museums increasingly documented industrial and electric clocks as heritage.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Quartz Revolution
Atlas type guide
Regulators, wall and Vienna clocks
A regulator is a precision pendulum clock used as a time standard in observatories, workshops and railway offices. Typical features are a deadbeat or Graham escapement, a temperature-compensated pendulum (mercury jar, gridiron or later invar), maintaining power and a regulator dial that separates hours, minutes and seconds. George Graham's deadbeat escapement (c. 1715) and his mercury pendulum, together with Harrison's gridiron, set the pattern for two centuries.
Wall clocks span a much wider range: the elegant Viennese Laterndluhr and Dachluhr of the Biedermeier period, the Dutch stoelklok and staartklok, English 'dial' clocks used in schools, offices and railway stations, and mass-produced spring and weight wall clocks from Germany (Gustav Becker, Junghans, Kienzle) and America.
What to look for
- Deadbeat escapement and compensated pendulum (gridiron rods, mercury jar or wood rod).
- A regulator dial with a large central minute hand and separate hour and seconds dials.
- Vienna regulators: glazed cases, slender pendulum, small weights, enamel two-piece dials.
- German factory trademarks stamped on the backplate (e.g. Gustav Becker anchor and crown, Junghans star).
Dating clues
- Graham-type deadbeat regulators: from c. 1720.
- Viennese Laterndluhr: c. 1800–1850.
- German factory 'Vienna-style' regulators: c. 1870–1930; Gustav Becker serial numbers allow close dating.
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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