Clocks · Table clock
Copy of Jeremias Metzger's 1564 table clock, Vienna, 1873
- Maker / attribution
- Jeremias Metzger (maker of the original (copied))
- Date
- 1873, after the original (Augsburg, 1564) in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
- Historical period
- Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
- Country of origin
- Austria
- Place
- Wien
- Object type
- Table clock
- Materials / technique
- Metall (Material) Galvano (Technik)
- Dimensions
- 29,8 x 18,7 x 11,9 cm
- Holding institution
- Dresden State Art Collections. Museum of Decorative Arts
- Accession / object no.
- 3508 (Inventarnummer)
- Credit line
- Dresden State Art Collections. Museum of Decorative Arts
- Catalogue title (original)
- Tischuhr (German)
Editor's note
The Dresden record identifies this as a copy made in Vienna in 1873 after Metzger's Augsburg clock of 1564; it is dated as the copy.View the source record ↗ (opens another website in a new tab)Suggest a correction
Record summary
Held and catalogued by Dresden State Art Collections. Museum of Decorative Arts (object number 3508 (Inventarnummer)), this is a table clock by Jeremias Metzger, made in Wien, Austria, dated 1873, after the original (Augsburg, 1564) in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. The Atlas places it in the Industrial Revolution period (1850 – 1900) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Metall (Material) Galvano (Technik). Recorded dimensions: 29,8 x 18,7 x 11,9 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
The source record does not include a narrative description. The structured fields above are reproduced from it.
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.
Related records
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