Clocks · Table clock
Table clock by Fa. Junghans, Germany, 1890
- Maker / attribution
- Fa. Junghans (creator)
- Date
- 1890
- Historical period
- Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
- Country of origin
- Germany
- Place
- Leipzig
- Object type
- Table clock
- Holding institution
- Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe
- Accession / object no.
- item_MYEGZH7E6T5OX55S7MHGT5MH6U4GOYGX
- Catalogue title (original)
- Tischuhr mit Spielwerk (German)
Record summary
Held and catalogued by Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe (object number item_MYEGZH7E6T5OX55S7MHGT5MH6U4GOYGX), this is a table clock by Fa. Junghans, made in Leipzig, Germany, dated 1890. The Atlas places it in the Industrial Revolution period (1850 – 1900) 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 Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe (German)
Nach 1890 kamen Uhren mit kleinen Lochplatten-Spielwerken in Mode und Uhrenhersteller bauten zugekaufte Musikwerke in ihre Produkte ein.. Zwischen Symphonion und Junghans bestand eine enge Zusammenarbeit: Junghans integrierte in seine Uhren Plattenspielwerke der Leipziger Firma. Die Melodie kann hier zur vollen Stunde automatisch abgespielt werden. Über das kleine Zifferblatt ist es möglich, sich von der Melodie wecken zu lassen.
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 An editor-reviewed English translation has not yet been published; we do not publish machine translations as authoritative text.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
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
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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