Clocks · Table clock
Table clock by Pierre Noytolon, France, 1600–1615
- Maker / attribution
- Pierre Noytolon (Horloger)
- Date
- 1600–1615
- Historical period
- Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
- Country of origin
- France
- Place
- Lyon
- Object type
- Table clock
- Materials / technique
- brass, steel, silver
- Dimensions
- height 12,3 cm; width 7 cm
- Holding institution
- Musée du Louvre, Paris
- Accession / object no.
- OA 10143
- 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 triangulaire, surmontée d'une sphère armillaire (French)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by Musée du Louvre, Paris (object number OA 10143), this is a table clock by Pierre Noytolon, made in Lyon, France, dated 1600–1615. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: brass, steel, silver. Recorded dimensions: height 12,3 cm; width 7 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
Catalogue description — Musée du Louvre (French)
Horloge de table triangulaire reposant sur trois pieds en forme de toupie, des stries gravées et des moulures soulignent sa forme triangulaire. Cadrans horizontaux indiquant les mois, les signes astrologiques, l'âge et les phases de la lune, l'heure marquée en chiffres romains. Disque gravé d'un carré astrologique. Chaque cadran orné d'un décor gravé distinct : une figure de femme vue à mi-corps supportant celui des heures ; des rinceaux fleuris décorant ceux de la lune et du zodiaque. Mouvement doté d'un foliot annulaire, échappement à roue de rencontre et une fusée avec corde à boyau. Coq à un pied et cliquet gravés de rinceaux fleuris. Trois colonnettes séparant les platines. Sphère mobile, supportée par trois volutes, composée du cercle méridien marqué Circulus Meridianus, du cercle arctique (Circulus Arcticus), du cercle antarctique (Circulus Antarcticus), de l'écliptique marquée Midi, Occ, Ori, Sep. Elle présente aussi le tropique du Cancer, celui du Capricorne, l'équateur et le cercle du zodiaque.
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 : Henri IV (1589-1610) (Occident->Renaissance->dynastie des Bourbons) · · Date de création/fabrication : 1600 - 1615
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 : laiton · Matériau : acier · Matériau : argent
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
Signature : ; mouvement signé : Pierre Noytolon ALyon
Provenance
Collection Maxmaron, Dijon ; collection Chabrières-Arlès, Paris ; collection Claudius Côte (1881-1956), Lyon ; legs Mme Marie-Françoise Côte (1891-1960), accepté par décret du 9 juillet 1961
Historical context
Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
Huygens' pendulum and balance spring transform accuracy; English makers develop the anchor and deadbeat escapements.
Huygens's pendulum (1656–57) improved clock accuracy from about a quarter of an hour to under a minute a day. The anchor escapement (c. 1670) and the long seconds pendulum created the longcase clock; London makers such as Fromanteel, Knibb, Tompion and Quare led European clockmaking, and French makers created the Boulle pendule.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Renaissance 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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