Clocks · Table clock
Table clock by Cailly, c. 1830
- Maker / attribution
- Cailly (creator)
- Date
- c. 1830
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Table clock
- Holding institution
- German Clock Museum
- Accession / object no.
- 29575
- Catalogue title (original)
- Tischuhr mit Automat "optischer Telegraph", Cailly ainé, Saint-Nicolas d'Aliermont, um 1830-1840 (German)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by German Clock Museum (object number 29575), this is a table clock by Cailly, dated c. 1830. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. 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
Catalogue description from German Clock Museum (German)
Claude Chappe erfand um 1790 den Flügeltelegrafen. Damit konnte man Nachrichten auf optischem Weg über weite Strecken senden. Für 250 Kilometer dauerte die Übertragung über 22 Telegrafenstationen etwa zwei Minuten für damals rasend schnell, ein Bote hätte für die gleiche Strecke drei Tage gebraucht. Die ausgestellte Tischuhr zeigt einen solchen Flügeltelegrafen, bewegt von einem kleinen Mechanismus. Doch er sendet keine sinnvolle Botschaft, die Flügel schlenkern nach Zufall. Die Telegrafie faszinierte auch Johann Wolfgang Goethe. In seinem Roman Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre von 1821 sollten Telegrafen durch eine sehr geistreiche Vorrichtung den Lauf der Stunden bei Tag und bei Nacht anzeigen, wenn sie nicht sonst beschäftigt sind. Doch dies war einfacher gesagt als getan. Erst die elektrische Telegrafie wird es erlauben, Uhren zu synchronisieren. (Deutsches Uhrenmuseum Furtwangen)
Shown in the original language of the source catalogue. An editor-reviewed English translation has not yet been published; we do not publish machine translations as authoritative text.
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
Bracket, table and spring-driven clocks
Spring-driven clocks freed timekeeping from the hanging weight. The coiled mainspring, documented from the fifteenth century, made portable table clocks possible; to even out its declining force, makers used the fusee, a conical pulley connected to the barrel by a gut line or chain. Renaissance table clocks from Augsburg and Nuremberg — drum-shaped, square or tower-shaped in gilt brass — were luxury scientific objects, often with astronomical dials and alarms.
After the pendulum, English makers developed the bracket clock: a wooden case with a carrying handle, a short pendulum with a verge escapement, and often repeating work to sound the hours on demand at night. Later examples use the anchor escapement. In the nineteenth century, 'table clock' became a broad term for spring clocks of every nationality.
What to look for
- A fusee in the movement (cone-shaped pulley) and the type of line — gut or chain.
- Verge escapement with a short bob pendulum, often with a decoratively engraved backplate.
- Repeat cords or buttons that make the clock strike again on demand.
- Gilt-brass engraved cases and horizontal dials on Renaissance pieces.
- Case shapes: inverted bell, bell top, break-arch, lancet or balloon.
Dating clues
- Drum and tower table clocks: c. 1520–1650.
- Ebony veneered English bracket clocks with verge escapements: c. 1670–1800.
- Engraved backplates were usual on English clocks until c. 1800, then generally plain.
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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