Clocks · Skeleton clock
skeleton clock
- Maker / attribution
- Hubert Sarton (Maker)
- Date
- 1810–1815
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- France
- Place
- Liège (city), Paris
- Object type
- Skeleton clock
- Dimensions
- Height: 495 mm; Width: 310 mm; Depth: 130 mm
- Holding institution
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- Accession / object no.
- M.9:1-2019
- Credit line
- Given by Miss Maria-Rosaria Enrica Moretti.
- Catalogue title (original)
- skeleton clock (English)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by Victoria and Albert Museum, London (object number M.9:1-2019), this is a skeleton clock by Hubert Sarton, made in Liège (city), Paris, France, dated 1810–1815. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Recorded dimensions: Height: 495 mm; Width: 310 mm; Depth: 130 mm. 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
Summary — Victoria and Albert Museum
Clocks designed to have the mechanism which makes them function (their wheel-work and escapement) clearly visible have become known as skeleton clocks.This example was made by Hubert Sarton (1748-1828), the finest and most inventive clockmaker in Liège during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He did, however, contract out the enamelling of the dials to specialists in Paris. This is only one of six clocks by Sarton known today that bear the the inscription 'à Paris' ('[enamelled] at Paris') on the dial.
Physical description — Victoria and Albert Museum
Skeleton clock, brass, enamel and black Belgian marble ('noir de mazy'). The feet on which the base would originally have stood are missing, and the pendulum and the clock have been adjusted to install a standard suspension spring.
Brief description — Victoria and Albert Museum
Skeleton clock, brass, enamel and black Belgian marble ('noir de mazy'), Liège (the mechanism) and Paris (the dial), 1810-1815, Hubert Sarton (the mechanism).
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
Skeleton clocks
A skeleton clock displays its movement: the plates are pierced to a minimum so that wheels, escapement and fusee can be seen, usually under a glass dome. French makers produced fine skeleton clocks in the late eighteenth century; in Victorian England they became popular showpieces, with frames in the shapes of cathedrals and famous buildings.
What to look for
- Pierced brass plates in scroll or architectural shapes.
- A glass dome and wooden or marble base.
- Fusee movements and sometimes passing strike on a bell.
Dating clues
- French skeleton clocks: c. 1780–1830.
- English cathedral-style skeleton clocks: c. 1840–1890.
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:FuseeAnchor (recoil) escapement
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