Clocks · Table clock
Table clock, Germany, 1905–1910
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- 1905–1910
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- Germany
- Place
- Germany
- Object type
- Table clock
- Materials / technique
- Messing, gegossen, gedrückt, patiniert, montiert
- Dimensions
- Höhe 26 cm, Breite 34 cm, Tiefe 10 cm
- Holding institution
- GRASSI Museum für Angewandte Kunst Leipzig
- Accession / object no.
- 2004.35 a–d
- Credit line
- GRASSI Museum für Angewandte Kunst Leipzig
- Catalogue title (original)
- Tischuhr mit Fledermaus (German)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by GRASSI Museum für Angewandte Kunst Leipzig (object number 2004.35 a–d), this is a table clock, made in Germany, dated 1905–1910. The Atlas places it in the Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking period (1900 – 1945) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Messing, gegossen, gedrückt, patiniert, montiert. Recorded dimensions: Höhe 26 cm, Breite 34 cm, Tiefe 10 cm. The record is illustrated with 1 photograph.
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 from GRASSI Museum für Angewandte Kunst Leipzig (German)
Die Oberfläche der in Messing gearbeiteten Tischuhr ist beinahe vollständig mit einem flachen Relief verziert. Geschwungene Bandornamente bilden eine Art Rahmen für das runde Zifferblatt und die natürlich aufgefasste Darstellung einer nächtlichen Landschaft. In prominenter Position über dem Uhrwerk schwebt die im Jugendstil zum Boten der Nacht mystifizierte Gestalt einer Fledermaus. Aus der Sammlung Alfred Langer, Leipzig. Schenkung der Erbengemeinschaft, 2004.
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 An editor-reviewed English translation has not yet been published; we do not publish machine translations as authoritative text.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
Literature: GRASSI Museum für Angewandte Kunst Leipzig (Hrsg.): Ständige Ausstellung. Jugendstil bis Gegenwart (2012)
Historical context
Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
The wristwatch displaces the pocket watch; waterproof cases, self-winding and grand complications.
Between 1900 and 1945 clocks were electrified: master-clock systems ran factories and offices, synchronous mains clocks entered homes, and the Shortt free-pendulum clock set new standards of accuracy before the first quartz clocks (1927). Art Deco design reshaped mantel and table clocks.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Industrial Revolution
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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