Clocks · Table clock
Table clock, France, 1600–1615
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- 1600–1615
- Historical period
- Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
- Country of origin
- France
- Place
- France
- Object type
- Table clock
- Materials / technique
- brass
- Dimensions
- height 21,1 cm; depth 8,8 cm
- Holding institution
- Musée du Louvre, Paris
- Accession / object no.
- OA 7016
- 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 carrée (French)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by Musée du Louvre, Paris (object number OA 7016), this is a table clock, made in 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. Recorded dimensions: height 21,1 cm; depth 8,8 cm. The record is illustrated with 6 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 table en forme de tour carrée, à dôme ajouré surmonté d'une figure d'homme vêtue en soldat romain. Les faces latérales et postérieure de la boîte en laiton gravé représentent, chacune, une déesse munie de ses attributs : Junon, Minerve, Vénus. Exécutées d'après des modèles du graveur anversois Adriaen Collaert (vers 1560-1618), ces figures sont contenues dans des médaillons ovales, entourés de rinceaux fleuris peuplés d'animaux divers (oiseaux, lapins, dragons, dauphins). La face antérieure est gravée de rinceaux fleuris. Sous le cadran, dans un médaillon circulaire, flanqué de deux figures féminines ailées, apparaissent les armoiries de la famille Phélypeaux de La Vrillère. Présenté dans un décrochement, le cadran possède un double tour d'heures à chiffres romains et arabes marquées par douze boutons saillants. Son centre est gravé de rayons dont la pointe est dirigée vers les indications horaires. Aiguille en acier. Le dôme, surmonté d'une figure en ronde bosse du dieu Mars, est ajouré et gravé de rinceaux fleuris, peuplés d'oiseaux, parmi eux alternent deux vases fleuris et deux femmes ailées, vues de face, sous un baldaquin. Une cloche est fixée sous cette coupole encadrée par quatre vases en forme de toupie. Le mouvement de la sonnerie possède deux corps de rouage séparés par une platine. Les deux barillets sont accouplés à des fusées, dont la corde à boyau a été remplacée par une chaînette d'acier. Sous la cloche, est fixé l'échappement à roue de rencontre. Devant la roue de compte de la sonnerie, oscille un pendule, en laiton, muni d'une tringle en acier qui permet de modifier la longueur.
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 · 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
Inscription : ; Armoiries : au 1 et au 4 d'azur semé de quatrefeuilles d'or au canton d'hermine ; au 2 et au 3 d'argent à trois lézards de sinoples posés en pals (Gravées sous le cadran ; Phélypeaux de La Vrillère)) ; Lettre "S" gravée ur le fond (désigne le trou de remontage de la sonnerie)
Provenance
collection Frédéric Spitzer (1815-1890), vente à Paris, 93 rue de Villejust, 17 avril-16 juin 1893 n° 2662 ; collection Paul Garnier (1834-1916), à Paris ; don Paul Garnier, en 1916.
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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