Clocks · Bracket clock
Late 19th century German Black Forest Rooster (Hahnen-Uhr) automaton walnut mantel clock by Emilian Wehrle
- Maker / attribution
- Emilian Wehrle (maker)
- Date
- c. 1885
- Historical period
- Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
- Country of origin
- Germany
- Object type
- Bracket clock
- Materials / technique
- walnut
- Dimensions
- Height 29 in (74 cm)
- Auction house
- Gardiner Houlgate (auction house), Corsham
- Lot
- Sale 42, lot 1264
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: lot 1264, Fine Clocks & Related Items, Gardiner Houlgate (22nd October 2026)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Rare late 19th century German Black Forest Rooster (Hahnen-Uhr) automaton walnut mantel clock by Emilian Wehrle of Furtwangen, circa 1885, 5" dial with Roman numerals and outer minute track, ornate gi (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Gardiner Houlgate (auction house), Corsham (lot Sale 42, lot 1264), this is a bracket clock by Emilian Wehrle, made in Germany, dated c. 1885. The Atlas places it in the Industrial Revolution period (1850 – 1900) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: walnut. Recorded dimensions: Height 29 in (74 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
Lot description — Gardiner Houlgate
Rare late 19th century German Black Forest Rooster (Hahnen-Uhr) automaton walnut mantel clock by Emilian Wehrle of Furtwangen, circa 1885, 5" dial with Roman numerals and outer minute track, ornate gilt engraved hands, three train thirty hour brass plate movement with rooster sound box mechanism, hour strike and outside countwheel with the automaton calling rooster to the open arch aperture, a single hammer sounding on a gong fitted to the inside of the rear case panel, within a neo-classical styled case with applied carved mouldings, fretwork side doors and upon bracket feet, 29" high, 12.5" wide, depth 8.5" (with pendulum and key) ** with matching wall bracket 15" wide ** The George Hollis Collection ** This clock was sold by Elite Auctions, Florida in April 2012 and sold for ,500 ** See Justin J. Miller - Rare and Unusual Black Forest Clocks, pages 158 and 158 for similar Emilian Wehrle rooster clocks
Historical context
Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
American interchangeable-parts manufacture; railroad time standards; Swiss and German factory systems.
Factory production transformed the clock into an everyday object. American makers (Seth Thomas, Ansonia, Waterbury) and German factories (Junghans, Gustav Becker, Lenzkirch) sold millions of shelf, wall and alarm clocks worldwide; France produced standardised Paris movements and carriage clocks; electric time distribution began.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Precision & Scientific 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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