Clocks · Clock
Skeleton timepiece with passing strike, circa 1870
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- c. 1870
- Historical period
- Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Clock
- Dimensions
- Height 18.5 in (47 cm)
- Auction house
- Gardiner Houlgate (auction house), Corsham
- Lot
- Sale 20, lot 1311
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: lot 1311, Fine Clocks & Related Items, Gardiner Houlgate (24th October 2019)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Good skeleton timepiece with passing strike, English, attributed to William Frederick Evans, Handsworth, circa 1870, the 5.25" enamel chapter ring signed for I. Simmons, Manchester, fusee and chain mo (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Gardiner Houlgate (auction house), Corsham (lot Sale 20, lot 1311), this is a clock, dated c. 1870. The Atlas places it in the Industrial Revolution period (1850 – 1900) of its Clocks collection. Recorded dimensions: Height 18.5 in (47 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
Good skeleton timepiece with passing strike, English, attributed to William Frederick Evans, Handsworth, circa 1870, the 5.25" enamel chapter ring signed for I. Simmons, Manchester, fusee and chain movement with half deadbeat escapement, shaped pallets, six-spoke wheels and wood rod pendulum with cylindrical zinc bob, well pierced scroll frame with top mounted bell for the passing strike and raised on a stepped bow ended white marble plinth, with a glass dome, 18.5" high (pendulum and key)
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
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:Anchor (recoil) escapement
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