Clocks · Table clock
Table clock by M H B, France, 1500–1600
- Maker / attribution
- M H B (maker)
- Date
- 1500–1600
- Historical period
- Renaissance Horology (1400 – 1600)
- Country of origin
- France
- Place
- France
- Object type
- Table clock
- Materials / technique
- brass
- Dimensions
- height 19,9 cm; diameter 11 cm; depth 9,5 cm
- Holding institution
- Musée du Louvre, Paris
- Accession / object no.
- OA 673
- Credit line
- Musée du Louvre, Département des Objets d'art du Moyen Age, de la Renaissance et des temps modernes
- Catalogue title (original)
- Horloge de table en forme de tour ronde (French)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by Musée du Louvre, Paris (object number OA 673), this is a table clock by M H B, made in France, dated 1500–1600. The Atlas places it in the Renaissance Horology period (1400 – 1600) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: brass. Recorded dimensions: height 19,9 cm; diameter 11 cm; depth 9,5 cm. The record is illustrated with 4 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 — Musée du Louvre (French)
Horloge de plan carré à dôme godronné ajouré et orné de cinq petites urnes. La boîte est gravée de grotesques et de scènes représentant la vie paysanne en été, au printemps et en automne. Dans un médaillon rectangualire, sur la face du cadran, deux femmes occupées à des travaux dans un champ encadrent une musicienne jouant de la viole, une partition sur les genoux. Au-dessus apparaît le cadran, entouré de moulures, à chiffres romains, munis d'un aiguille en acier bleui. Son centre est orné d'un baldaquin abritant une femme ailée, vue en buste, encadrée de deux cerfs. une tête d'angelot, des fleurs, des fruits, des oiseaux, des escargots, des figurines de fantaisie, des rinceaux composent un décor symétrique recouvrant le reste de la face. Les faces latérales sont décorées de grotesques parmi lesquelles surgissent des figures variées (oiseaux, tritons, Amours) et d'un médaillon ovale. L'un représente des fermiers saignant un porc, l'autre un paysan conversant avec deux femmes. La face postérieure, servant de couvercle, est gravée des armes d'Henri III, roi de Pologne en 1573, puis roi de France en 1574. Les écus de la France et de Pologne-Lituanie sont accolés et surmontés de la couronne royale et entourés du collier de l'ordre du Saint-Esprit, fondé par Henri III en 1578. Le dôme ajouré abrite un cloche. Il est formé d'arcades renversées et d'un lacis de rubans. Un vase circulaire le surmonte, similaire aux vases fixés aux quatre coins de la boîte, mais plus petits.
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.
Dating and period as catalogued (French)
Epoque / période : dynastie des Valois-Angoulême (Occident->Renaissance) · · Date de création/fabrication : 1500 - 1600
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.
Materials and techniques as catalogued (French)
Matériau/Technique : Laiton doré · Matériau : laiton · Technique : doré = dorure (techniques métal)
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.
Inscriptions & marks
Marque de l'atelier : ; MHB (Monogramme composé des lettres MHB gravé à l'intérieur de la base)
Provenance
Collection Alexandre-Charles Sauvageot (1781-1860) ; acquis avant 1828, cf. le Livre d'achat n° 600 : "petite horloge ronde en cuivre doré du 16e siècle 18 francs / coupole et dorure 55 francs / mouvement 15 francs / 88 francs" ; minute de la donation Sauvageot 1DD139 série K n° 14 p. 176 : "Horloge en cuivre doré et gravé, forme ronde à coupole découpée à jour, 6 colonnettes à chapiteaux corynthiens, dont 3 tronqués. Pied en ébène profilé " ; donation acceptée en 1856, acte notarié le 6 mars 1857, n° 1369 : "Horloge en cuivre doré et [rayé : argenté] gravé, forme ronde à coupole découpée à jour, six colonnettes à chapiteaux corynthiens, estimée mille francs" ; l'illustration par Lièvre dans Sauzay 1863 vol. 1 pl. 33 montre l'horloge présentée sur un socle.
Historical context
Renaissance Horology (1400 – 1600)
Spring power makes clocks portable; Nuremberg and Augsburg produce the first watches; the Prague Orloj is built.
Spring power made the domestic clock portable. Augsburg and Nuremberg produced gilt-brass table clocks, often with astronomical dials and alarms; weight-driven Gothic wall clocks and English lantern clocks served households. Clocks of this period have foliot or balance-wheel control and usually only an hour hand.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Medieval Period
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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