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Two-hand pavilion clock by Christoph Miller, Germany, 1640–1650 — view 1 of 2
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Clocks · Two-hand pavilion clock

Two-hand pavilion clock by Christoph Miller, Germany, 1640–1650

DocumentedDocumented from the holding institution's catalogue record.
Maker / attribution
Christoph Miller (maker)
Date
1640–1650
Historical period
Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
Country of origin
Germany
Place
Augsburg
Object type
Two-hand pavilion clock
Materials / technique
gilt brass, gilt copper
Dimensions
140x140 mm; height 110 mm
Holding institution
Museo Galileo, Florence
Accession / object no.
Inv. 3866
Credit line
Museo Galileo, Florence
Catalogue title (original)
Two-hand pavilion clock (English)

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Record summary

Held and catalogued by Museo Galileo, Florence (object number Inv. 3866), this is a two-hand pavilion clock by Christoph Miller, made in Augsburg, Germany, dated 1640–1650. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: gilt brass, gilt copper. Recorded dimensions: 140x140 mm; height 110 mm. 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

Catalogue description — Museo Galileo

Table clock signed by Christoph Miller. The square case has side-windows to show the movement. The gild brass back is engraved with large floral motifs. The hours and minutes are marked on two separate silvered rings. At the center is a rotating disk for the alarm. The movement has three trains: the going train with a six-coil chain fusee and a verge escapement, and two separate chime trains for the hours and quarter-hours.

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

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.

Read next:Anchor (recoil) escapementFoliot

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