Clocks · Clock
Studio wall clocks, chrome and glass, British, 1930. Designed by Rodney Thomas. Movement by Xenith and made by Army ad Navy Stores.
- Maker / attribution
- Rodney Thomas (Designer); Army and Navy Stores
- Date
- 1930
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Place
- UK
- Object type
- Clock
- Materials / technique
- Chrome and glass
- Dimensions
- Diameter: 46 cm
- Holding institution
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- Accession / object no.
- M.12-1979
- Catalogue title (original)
- Clock
Record summary
Held and catalogued by Victoria and Albert Museum, London (object number M.12-1979), this is a clock by Rodney Thomas, made in UK, dated 1930. The Atlas places it in the Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking period (1900 – 1945) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Chrome and glass. Recorded dimensions: Diameter: 46 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
V&A — Physical description
The face in the form of a shallow chromium plated dish. Pierced Roman numeral figures and painted metal hands on the concave surface. Two opal glass discs fit behind the bowl as a back-plate. The back-plate fitted flush with the wall and was illuminated from a concealed recess.
V&A — Object history
The clock was designed by Rodney Thomas (b. 1902) for the London studio of the painter Eileen Agar.
V&A — Production note
Movement by Xenith
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
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.
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