Clocks · Table Clock
Table Clock, Germany, 1600–1700
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- 1600–1700
- Historical period
- Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
- Country of origin
- Germany
- Place
- Germany
- Object type
- Table Clock
- Materials / technique
- Engraved and gilt brass
- Dimensions
- Height: 3 in; Diameter: 4.5 in; Diameter: 6.5 cm; Height: 6.1 cm
- Holding institution
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- Accession / object no.
- M.175-1938
- Credit line
- Given by W.E.Miller FSA
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by Victoria and Albert Museum, London (object number M.175-1938), this is a table clock, made in Germany, dated 1600–1700. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Engraved and gilt brass. Recorded dimensions: Height: 3 in; Diameter: 4.5 in; Diameter: 6.5 cm; Height: 6.1 cm. The record is illustrated with 5 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
This table clock with an alarum mechanism is formed as a drum providing stability for the movement it contains.The centre of the dial is flat but decorated with the sun or wind motif, symbolic of the ancient cult of the sun as source of life, that was revived in the Renaissance through the writings of Marcellus Ficino in the 15th century and Robert Fludd in the 17th century. Drum-shaped table clocks also served as time-keepers whilst travelling. Such clocks were made in Southern Germany, in Augsburg and Nuremberg, and exported accross Europe. They were cherished possessions and often shown in portraits of European kings and princes. The portrait of the French king Henri II by Primaticcio show a similar table clock on the table beside the sitter.
Physical description — Victoria and Albert Museum
Cylindrical case engraved with a male and a female demi-figure terminating in foliated scrolls; above this is a band of openwork foliated scrolls enclosing the bell. Removable base with a moulded rim and engraved with a cartouche with a wreath. The outer dial is numbered with Roman numerals 1-XII and with half hour marks as an inner flange with arabic numerals 13-24. The centre of the dial is engraved with a wind rose; the hour indicator- an iron pointer- is mounted on a central silver alarm disc numbered 1-11 over which a small hand revolves to set the alarum. There is a short central alarm-setting hand.The gut fusee may be inspected through a small door in the side of the case. The movement frame consists of three turned baluster pillars and three circular plates. The movement wheels are of iron except for the contrate wheel. The spring barrels are brass. The going train has a long brass fusee of 22 turns and cord; verge escapement, brass balance wheel (without spring) and engraved single-foot cock. The alarm train with going barrel. The alarm bell is mounted between the top and dial plates.
Brief description — Victoria and Albert Museum
A drum-shaped gilt-brass table alarm clock, with pierced upper section and dial on upper surface, German, 17th century.
Provenance
This alarum table clock was given to the V&A by W.E.Miller FSA
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.
Read next:Anchor (recoil) escapement
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