Clocks · Table-clock
Table-clock, Germany, 1500–1600
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- 1500–1600
- Historical period
- Renaissance Horology (1400 – 1600)
- Country of origin
- Germany
- Place
- Germany
- Object type
- Table-clock
- Materials / technique
- gilded metal, pierced
- Dimensions
- Height: 5 3/8 in; Diameter: 3 3/8 in
- Holding institution
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- Accession / object no.
- 243-1874
- Credit line
- Purchased from John Webb, 1874
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by Victoria and Albert Museum, London (object number 243-1874), this is a table-clock, made in Germany, 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: gilded metal, pierced. Recorded dimensions: Height: 5 3/8 in; Diameter: 3 3/8 in. The record is illustrated with 2 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
Summary — Victoria and Albert Museum
Table clock in a gilt metal hexagonal case with cupola of pierced foliage work. German 16th century. Purchased from John Webb (1799-1880)
Brief description — Victoria and Albert Museum
A gilt-metal table clock, of hexagonal form with a cupola of pierced foliage, German, 16th century.
Provenance
Purchased from John Webb, 1874. John Webb (1799-1880) was a dealer active for the South Kensington Museum whose name recurrs in Henry Cole's Diary. Webb was trading from 1851 to the late 1860s at 11 Grafton Street, just off New Bond StreetHe purchased items from the 1867 Paris Exhibition. In the late 1860s, Webb planned his retirement so as to benefit the museum. Henry Cole recorded ' Mr and Mrs Webb called. He would consider leasing his objects to be ultimately purchased'. Webb lent a large number of items from his remaining stock and the South Kensington Museum undertook to purchase them over a period of years. The loan agreement was signed by Webb on 11 August 1869, and was renewable until 1876. The value of the loan was £10,851. Over five years the museum acquired most of the items on loan; the total spent was £10,968; this clock cost £60.0. In the obituary that Henry Cole wrote of John Webb, Cole affirmed that 'when Mr John Webb retired from business and took up his residence at his villa in Cannes.. the valuable series of art objects was bought by the South Kensington Museums'. John Webb spent his winters at the Villa Hollandia in Cannes where Cole visited him in October 1871. Webb also owned a country house in Kent, Wrotham Place, where Cole stayed in October 1873. In 1869 Matthew Digby Wyatt urged the acquisition of Webb's Collection arguing that 'the specimens assume an exceptional value from the fact of their having been collected by Mr Webb at a time when his eye a
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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