Clocks · Table clock
Table clock by Johann Kaltenbach, c. 1830
- Maker / attribution
- Johann Kaltenbach (Maker)
- Date
- c. 1830
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Table clock
- Dimensions
- Höhe: 78.00 cm, Breite: 43.00 cm, Tiefe: 14.50 cm
- Holding institution
- German Clock Museum
- Accession / object no.
- 2015-057 (inventory number) 57229 (technical number)
- Credit line
- German Clock Museum
- Catalogue title (original)
- Tischuhr, Pillar and Scroll Clock, Johann Kaltenbach, Neukirch, um 1830 (German)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by German Clock Museum (object number 2015-057 (inventory number) 57229 (technical number)), this is a table clock by Johann Kaltenbach, dated c. 1830. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Recorded dimensions: Höhe: 78.00 cm, Breite: 43.00 cm, Tiefe: 14.50 cm. The record is illustrated with 5 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
Catalogue description from German Clock Museum
In den 1830er Jahren bekamen die Schwarzwälder Uhrenhändler unerwartete Konkurrenz aus den USA. Dort gab es neuartige Holzuhren, die noch billiger als die Lackschilduhren waren. Besonders praktisch: Pendel und Gewichte befanden sich gut geschützt im flachen Gehäuse. Der Neukircher Uhrmacher Johannes Kaltenbach nahm die Herausforderung an und baute diese Uhren hier im Schwarzwald nach. Dabei übersah er, was die neuen Uhren so erfolgreich machte: Es war nicht die Form, sondern die Herstellungsweise. Die Einzelteile wurden mit Schablonen hergestellt und kontrolliert, so dass die Uhrwerke ohne Nacharbeit zusammengebaut werden konnten. (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 An editor-reviewed English translation has not yet been published; we do not publish machine translations as authoritative text.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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