Clocks · Table clock
Table clock, Germany, 18th century
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- 18th century
- Historical period
- Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
- Country of origin
- Germany
- Place
- Germany
- Object type
- Table clock
- Materials / technique
- Silvered brass dial, case of ebonised wood. Engraved flat brass plate.
- Dimensions
- Width: 9.5 in; Height: 9 in
- Holding institution
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- Accession / object no.
- M.71-1955
- Credit line
- Given by the Science Museum, London
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by Victoria and Albert Museum, London (object number M.71-1955), this is a table clock, made in Germany, dated 18th century. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Silvered brass dial, case of ebonised wood. Engraved flat brass plate. Recorded dimensions: Width: 9.5 in; Height: 9 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
Physical description — Victoria and Albert Museum
Clock, ebonised case surmounted by a dog of gilt brass. Case of ebonised wood with applied gilt brass ornament on four moulded feet. The dial of silvered brass is pierced for winding and striking. On top of the case supported on a flat brass plate engraved with rococo ornmanet, is a figure of a couchant dog. The eyes of the dog, which are set with pastes, are connected with the pendulum and move with the latter's beat. Movement may be French, early 19th century, the case and dial probabl;y later. The figure of the dog is original [taken from Object register]
Brief description — Victoria and Albert Museum
Automaton clock with a dog. Gilt brass, German, 19th century.
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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