Clocks · Quarter-chiming clock
Three-train clock in a five glass, walnut framed case. Chromium plated. Westminster chime
- Maker / attribution
- Perivale Clock Manufacturing Company Ltd (Factory of)
- Date
- 1935
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London (England)
- Object type
- Quarter-chiming clock
- Materials / technique
- walnut, glass
- Holding institution
- British Museum
- Accession / object no.
- 2012,8028.58
- Credit line
- British Museum, London
- Catalogue title (original)
- Three-train clock in a five glass, walnut framed case. Chromium plated. Westminster chime (English)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by British Museum (object number 2012,8028.58), this is a quarter-chiming clock by Perivale Clock Manufacturing Company Ltd, made in London (England), dated 1935. 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: walnut, glass. 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
Description — British Museum
Three-train clock in a five glass, walnut framed case. Chromium plated. Westminster chime. Train counts Going train Pallets embrace 8 teeth Escape - 44,6 Fourth - 63,6 Centre - 68,10 Second - 72,10 Going barrel - 72 Striking train Fly - 7 Warning - 63,7 Gathering - 63,8 Pin - 72,8 9T star wheel Second - 64,10 Going barrel - 72 Chiming train Fly - 4 Fourth - 74,6 Stop - 60,7 Quarter striking cam - 70,12 56T engages with hammer lifting wheel on back plate Second - 70,12 28T hammer lifting wheel Going barrel - 70.
Curator's comments — British Museum
Serial no. 22084. Made in 1935. All parts chromed (originally when new). 'Double-scissor' pendulum adjustment mechanism, but with no access from front dial. The movement is based on a Haller & benzing movement. Haller & benzing went out of business c1928, these movements were then made under the 'Anvil made in Baden' trademark. When Perivale started making clocks they used this design, including the 'double-scissor' rate-adjustment arrangement (patented by Fichtor and Hackenjos). Some clocks they put hole in dial for this lever, others they didnt, after about year Perivale abandoned the double-scissor arrangement. See 'Clockmaking in England and Wales in the Twentieth Century : the industrialized manufacture of domestic mechanical clocks' by John Glanville and William M. Wolmuth, Crowood Press , 2015 p 314, 321-326, fig.7.102, 7.103.
Provenance
Donated by:, John Glanville, Donated by:, Bill Wolmuth
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
Domestic clocks
A clock combines four systems: a source of power (falling weight, coiled spring, or later electricity), a gear train that divides time, an escapement and oscillator that regulate it (foliot, pendulum or balance), and an indicating system of dial and hands or a bell. Its history runs from the large iron weight-driven clocks of the late thirteenth century to Renaissance spring-driven table clocks, the pendulum revolution of 1656, the factory clocks of the nineteenth century and electric and quartz clocks of the twentieth.
Domestic clocks also reflect regional furniture and decorative traditions — English longcase and bracket clocks, French pendules, Viennese regulators, Black Forest and American shelf clocks — and therefore record changing tastes as much as technical progress.
What to look for
- How the clock is powered: weights, spring barrel, fusee, electric coil.
- The oscillator: foliot, short pendulum, long seconds pendulum or balance.
- Whether it strikes: hour only (count wheel) or hours and quarters (rack striking).
- The maker or retailer's name on dial and movement, and any factory trademarks.
- Signs of alteration — replaced dials, converted escapements, 'married' cases.
Dating clues
- Before 1656 clocks used foliots or balances; after, most domestic clocks have pendulums.
- Anchor escapements spread after c. 1670; minute hands became common at the same time.
- Factory production in America and Germany transformed prices after c. 1840.
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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