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Clocks · Wall clock

Minature wall clock

DocumentedDocumented from the holding institution's catalogue record.
Maker / attribution
Unrecorded in source
Date
1700–1725
Historical period
Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
Country of origin
France
Place
France (?)
Object type
Wall clock
Dimensions
Diameter: 5.30 centimetres (including pendulum cock and back hoop) Height: 11.85 centimetres Width: 7.80 centimetres
Holding institution
British Museum
Accession / object no.
1888,1201.140
Credit line
British Museum, London
Catalogue title (original)
Minature wall clock (English)

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Record summary

Held and catalogued by British Museum (object number 1888,1201.140), this is a wall clock, made in France (?), dated 1700–1725. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Clocks collection. Recorded dimensions: Diameter: 5.30 centimetres (including pendulum cock and back hoop) Height: 11.85 centimetres Width: 7.80 centimetres. The record is illustrated with 2 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

Description — British Museum

Minature wall clock. Silvered dial, the chapter ring with Roman hours I-XII and half-hour marks around an inner circle divided to quarter hours. Later single blued-steel; hand. Above the chapter ring a silvered brass panel pierced and engraved with foliate scrolls and birds flanking a mask surmounted by a royal crown. Weight-driven movement with verge escapement enclosed in a brass box with two holes at the bottom for the weight lines. A hoop and two spikes at the back for wall mounting. Opening doors at the sides. Pendulum suspended from a long bracket at the front above the chapter ring.

Provenance

Bequeathed by:, Octavius Morgan; Acquired 1888

Historical context

Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)

Huygens' pendulum and balance spring transform accuracy; English makers develop the anchor and deadbeat escapements.

Huygens's pendulum (1656–57) improved clock accuracy from about a quarter of an hour to under a minute a day. The anchor escapement (c. 1670) and the long seconds pendulum created the longcase clock; London makers such as Fromanteel, Knibb, Tompion and Quare led European clockmaking, and French makers created the Boulle pendule.

Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Renaissance Horology

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.

Read next:Deadbeat escapementAnchor (recoil) escapementGrasshopper escapement

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