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
- Allemagne, Germany
- Object type
- Table clock
- Materials / technique
- bronze, brass
- Dimensions
- height 8 cm; width 14,5 cm
- Holding institution
- Musée du Louvre, Paris
- Accession / object no.
- OA 675
- 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 carrée (French)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by Musée du Louvre, Paris (object number OA 675), this is a table clock, made in Allemagne, 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: bronze, brass. Recorded dimensions: height 8 cm; width 14,5 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 carrée ; faces ornées de la même frise en bas-relief ; au centre, une femme drapée trônant sous un baldaquin en compagnie d'un félin, encadrée de deux termes à tête de satyre et de deux médaillons ovales en partie découpés à jour, contenant une figure d'homme assis. L'un, barbu, de race blanche ; l'autre portant un turban paraît de race noire. Fruits, fleurs, oiseaux, cornes d'abondance composant le reste du décor. Angles ornés de termes barbus. Base moulurée reposant sur quatre têtes d'Amour ailées. Cadran horizontal à triple cercle marquant les heures du jour et de la nuit, un anneau numéroté deux fois (I à XII), un à chiffres arabes (13 à 24) ; au centre, disque du réveil (de 1 à 12) décoré d'entrelacs. Angles ornés d'un masque de singe couronné d'un fleuron, encadré de deux Amours tenant des serpents. Mouvement à sonnerie et à réveil possédant un échappement à roue de rencontre, une fusée avec corde à boyau, deux barillets. Sur la platine, un coq gravé et ajouré de feuilles d'acanthe protégeant un balancier à ressort-spiral-réglant. Rosette de réglage numérotée de 1 à 6, roue de comte de la sonnerie sur timbre. Quatre piliers cylindriques renflés au centre.
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 : bronze · Matériau : laiton
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.
Provenance
collection Alexandre-Charles Sauvageot (1781-1860) ; acquise en 1852, cf. le Livre d'achat n° 2420 : "horloge de table carrée en cuivre doré du XVIè siècle 400 francs réparation au mouvement 50 francs rest[auration] et dorure 23,50 francs / 473,50 francs" ; minute de la donation Sauvageot 1DD139 série K n° 13 p. 176, précision : "le cadran donne les 12 heures de jour et les 12 heures de nuit" ; donation acceptée en 1856, acte notarié le 6 mars 1857, n° 1368 : "Horloge de table carrée, cuivre dorée et ciselé, supporté par quatre têtes d’anges, dans les angles quatre cariatides, frises à sujet gravé et huit médaillons à figures découpées à jour, estimée mille francs".
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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