Clocks · Table clock
Upright table clock with winding key, by unknown maker, made in Augsburg, Germany, 1625-1635
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- 1625-1635
- Historical period
- Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
- Country of origin
- Germany
- Place
- Augsburg, Schwaben, Bavaria, Germany, Augsburg
- Object type
- Table clock
- Dimensions
- overall: 320 mm x 255 mm
- Holding institution
- Science Museum Group, London
- Accession / object no.
- 1952-312
- Credit line
- Pratt and Son Ltd.
- Catalogue title (original)
- Masterpiece clock from Augsburg, Germany, 1625-1635
Record summary
Held and catalogued by Science Museum Group, London (object number 1952-312), this is a table clock, made in Augsburg, Schwaben, Bavaria, Germany, Augsburg, dated 1625-1635. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Clocks collection. Recorded dimensions: overall: 320 mm x 255 mm. The record is illustrated with 4 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
Science Museum Group description
This clock is known as a 'masterpiece clock' because it was made as part of a clockmaker's final assessment according to the strict guild regulations in German towns, such as Augsburg where this example was made, in the early-seventeenth 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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