Clocks · Ship's clock
Victorian brass ship's bulkhead timepiece, English, c. 1870–1880
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- c. 1870–1880
- Historical period
- Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Ship's clock
- Materials / technique
- brass
- Stock no.
- SKU 528
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Howard Walwyn (SKU 528)
- Catalogue title (original)
- VICTORIAN BRASS SHIP’S CLOCK. A fine Bulkhead Ship’s Timepiece of rare small size. (English)
Editor's note
The listing heading names the type ('Victorian brass ship's clock'), not a maker; no maker is stated.View the source record (dealer listing) ↗ (opens another website in a new tab)Suggest a correction
Record summary
Catalogued by Howard Walwyn Fine Antique Clocks (dealer), London (stock number SKU 528), this is a ship's clock, dated c. 1870–1880. The Atlas places it in the Industrial Revolution period (1850 – 1900) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: brass. 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
Dealer description — Howard Walwyn
A fine bulkhead ship’s timepiece of rare small size. The 6-inch circular painted white iron dial has a subsidiary seconds dial and Roman hour numerals with an outer minute hand and fine blued steel spade tipped hands. The small brass case is of shallow cylindrical form with ring-turned decoration to the circumference. It has a bevelled glass to the hinged opening door and two pierced tabs for wall/bulkhead mounting which extend from the tinned back cover. Overall diameter : 7 in (18 cm) Depth : 2 ¾ in (5.5 cm) HW6418
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
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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