Clocks · Striking clock
Striking mantle clock with round silvered dial and brass bezel in a mahogany lancet top case
- Maker / attribution
- Davall (Factory of)
- Date
- 1910–1930
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- England
- Object type
- Striking clock
- Dimensions
- Height: 257 millimetres Width: 211 millimetres Depth: 156 millimetres
- Holding institution
- British Museum
- Accession / object no.
- 2012,8028.147
- Credit line
- British Museum, London
- Catalogue title (original)
- Striking mantle clock with round silvered dial and brass bezel in a mahogany lancet top case (English)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by British Museum (object number 2012,8028.147), this is a striking clock by Davall, made in England, dated 1910–1930. The Atlas places it in the Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking period (1900 – 1945) of its Clocks collection. Recorded dimensions: Height: 257 millimetres Width: 211 millimetres Depth: 156 millimetres. 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
Striking mantle clock with round silvered dial and brass bezel in a mahogany lancet top case. Five pillar movement, with rectangular plates. Movement secured by brackets to case. Striking with single hammer on coiled gong. Fly mounted on back plate.
Curator's comments — British Museum
Traditionally made Davall striking movement, pre-dating industrialised manufacture. Serial no. 754. These clocks are uncommon. The movement is similar to that seen in 2012,8028.90, however this example has rectangular plates (without corners cut off), is fixed to the case with brackets. See 'Clockmaking in England and Wales in the Twentieth Century : the industrialized manufacture of domestic mechanical clocks' by John Glanville and William M. Wolmuth, Crowood Press , 2015 p 333-334.
Inscriptions & marks
inscription; movement back plate; MADE; IN; ENGLAND; 754
Provenance
Donated by:, John Glanville, Donated by:, Bill Wolmuth
Historical context
Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
The wristwatch displaces the pocket watch; waterproof cases, self-winding and grand complications.
Between 1900 and 1945 clocks were electrified: master-clock systems ran factories and offices, synchronous mains clocks entered homes, and the Shortt free-pendulum clock set new standards of accuracy before the first quartz clocks (1927). Art Deco design reshaped mantel and table clocks.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Industrial Revolution
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.
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