
Clocks · Clock
Scarce Rosewood Chinese Clock case on Stand, c. 1880
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- c. 1880
- Historical period
- Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
- Country of origin
- China
- Object type
- Clock
- Materials / technique
- brass, enamel, porcelain, rosewood, stone
- Auction house
- LiveAuctioneers auction archive
- Lot
- Item 19400526
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: lot 156, FORSYTHES' LARGE ANTIQUES ESTATES AUCTION, Forsythes' Auctions, LLC (2013), via LiveAuctioneers
- Catalogue title (original)
- SCARCE ROSEWOOD CHINESE CLOCK CASE ON STAND (English)
View the source record (auction lot) ↗ (opens another website in a new tab)Suggest a correction
Record summary
Catalogued by LiveAuctioneers auction archive (lot Item 19400526), this is a clock, made in China, dated c. 1880. The Atlas places it in the Industrial Revolution period (1850 – 1900) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: brass, enamel, porcelain, rosewood, stone. The record is illustrated with 3 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 — Forsythes' Auctions, LLC
Circa 1880 with enameled porcelain dial mounted on engraved brass tablet with stylized floral and Chinese characters, mounted in a beautifully carved and pierced rosewood case inset with stone panels at lower front and sides on scroll carved feet, 18.3 x 12 x 10”. Comes with a carved rosewood stand with cabrioled legs, 5” high.
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
Domestic clocks
A clock combines four systems: a source of power (falling weight, coiled spring, or later electricity), a gear train that divides time, an escapement and oscillator that regulate it (foliot, pendulum or balance), and an indicating system of dial and hands or a bell. Its history runs from the large iron weight-driven clocks of the late thirteenth century to Renaissance spring-driven table clocks, the pendulum revolution of 1656, the factory clocks of the nineteenth century and electric and quartz clocks of the twentieth.
Domestic clocks also reflect regional furniture and decorative traditions — English longcase and bracket clocks, French pendules, Viennese regulators, Black Forest and American shelf clocks — and therefore record changing tastes as much as technical progress.
What to look for
- How the clock is powered: weights, spring barrel, fusee, electric coil.
- The oscillator: foliot, short pendulum, long seconds pendulum or balance.
- Whether it strikes: hour only (count wheel) or hours and quarters (rack striking).
- The maker or retailer's name on dial and movement, and any factory trademarks.
- Signs of alteration — replaced dials, converted escapements, 'married' cases.
Dating clues
- Before 1656 clocks used foliots or balances; after, most domestic clocks have pendulums.
- Anchor escapements spread after c. 1670; minute hands became common at the same time.
- Factory production in America and Germany transformed prices after c. 1840.
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.
Related records
Clocks · c. 1850
19th C. Chinese Porcelain and Dore Bronze Clock set, c. 1850
LiveAuctioneers auction archive
Clocks · c. 1860
Chinese Qing Dynasty Export Mantel Clock, c. 1860
LiveAuctioneers auction archive
Clocks · 1830–1870
Wall clock in a papier mâché case with painted decoration. English, mid 19th century.
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Clocks · 1840–1900
Alarm clock, mounted on model of coffin with skeleton, probably English, 1840–1900
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · 1840–1880
Clock dial marked "Potter, Railway Time" with two hands, unknown maker, British, 1840–1880
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · 1840–1877
Electric clock of the Bain type
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · 1840–1878
Mantel clock by A. Brocot, France, 1840–1878
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · 1840–1880
Wall Clock in octagonal case with Prince of Wales Feathers above makers name "W. Avison, Railway Time, York", made by William Avison, England, 1840–1880.
Science Museum Group, London
