Clocks · Clock
Lacquered Wooden Table Clock, Austria, 19th Century
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- 19th century
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- Austria
- Object type
- Clock
- Materials / technique
- enamel
- Auction house
- Invaluable auction listings
- Lot
- Lot 479C9AFC2F
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: lot 169, Wunderkammer & Objets de Vertu | Historical Clocks & Timepieces | An Old Masters Print Collection, Marcopolo Auctions Milano (2026), via Invaluable
- Catalogue title (original)
- LACQUERED WOODEN TABLE CLOCK , AUSTRIA, 19TH CENTURY (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Invaluable auction listings (lot Lot 479C9AFC2F), this is a clock, made in Austria, dated 19th century. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: enamel. 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 — Marcopolo Auctions Milano
h cm 45 x l cm 28 x w cm 14, Of architectural form, with an ochre-yellow lacquered wooden case richly decorated with landscape scenes, harbour views, architectural elements, figures and floral motifs in the 18th-century taste. The circular white enamel dial features Arabic numerals, pierced metal hands and three winding holes. The movement strikes the hours and quarters automatically and features a repeating mechanism. The silk-thread pendulum suspension is in need of servicing.
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
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.
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