Clocks · Table clock
Table clock, Karlsruhe, 1850–1899
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- 1850–1899
- Historical period
- Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Place
- Karlsruhe
- Object type
- Table clock
- Holding institution
- Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe
- Accession / object no.
- item_4HSAR2LRXE5UWOAFB4TDYPIUYUPVWYH4
- Catalogue title (original)
- Tischuhr im neogotischen Stil (German)
Record summary
Held and catalogued by Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe (object number item_4HSAR2LRXE5UWOAFB4TDYPIUYUPVWYH4), this is a table clock, made in Karlsruhe, dated 1850–1899. The Atlas places it in the Industrial Revolution period (1850 – 1900) of its Clocks collection. 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 Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe (German)
Die relativ bescheidene Turmuhr ist ein gutes Beispiel für die besonders im zweiten Drittel des 19. Jahrhunderts erstarkenden gotisierenden Tendenzen im Kunstgewerbe. Die Form des Gehäuses erinnert an ein mächtiges Stadttor mit vier Rundtürmen an den Ecken und einem Tempietto, einem kleinen Tempel mit runder Grundfläche, Säulen und Kuppelaufbau, als bekrönendem Abschluss. Die Einzelteile der Architektur scheinen Serien-, wenn nicht gar Massenartikel zu sein. Sie sind einem Baukasten von Formen entnommen und teilweise grob auf das notwendige Maß geschnitten. An verschiedenen Stellen befinden sich Phantasiewappen, die dem badischen Wappen nur auf den flüchtigen Blick ähnlich scheinen. Alle vergoldeten Messingapplikationen sind auf ein einfaches Blechgehäuse montiert in dem das Uhrwerk untergebracht ist.
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 An editor-reviewed English translation has not yet been published; we do not publish machine translations as authoritative text.
Historical context
Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
American interchangeable-parts manufacture; railroad time standards; Swiss and German factory systems.
Factory production transformed the clock into an everyday object. American makers (Seth Thomas, Ansonia, Waterbury) and German factories (Junghans, Gustav Becker, Lenzkirch) sold millions of shelf, wall and alarm clocks worldwide; France produced standardised Paris movements and carriage clocks; electric time distribution began.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Precision & Scientific 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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