
Clocks · Wall clock
Wall clock by Ivan Persson, 1947–1948
- Maker / attribution
- Ivan Persson (Maker)
- Date
- 1947–1948
- Historical period
- Modern Mechanical Horology (1945 – 1969)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Wall clock
- Materials / technique
- image/jpeg text/plain
- Dimensions
- Diameter 240.0 mm
- Holding institution
- Swedish National Museum of Science and Technology
- Accession / object no.
- TEKS0047204
- Credit line
- Swedish National Museum of Science and Technology
- Catalogue title (original)
- Väggur (Swedish)
View the source record ↗ (opens another website in a new tab)Suggest a correction
Record summary
Held and catalogued by Swedish National Museum of Science and Technology (object number TEKS0047204), this is a wall clock by Ivan Persson, dated 1947–1948. The Atlas places it in the Modern Mechanical Horology period (1945 – 1969) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: image/jpeg text/plain. Recorded dimensions: Diameter 240.0 mm. The record is illustrated with 3 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 from Swedish National Museum of Science and Technology
Klockan är tillverkad av cykeldelar. Kuggkransen på urtavlan (Husqvarna) är utvidgad till 60 kvgg. Den största kuggkransen (modell 30) hade 56 kuggar. Loden är bakhjulsnav, pendel av ekrar, kattöga och kuggkrans, kullager fråm framhjulsnav i Monarkcyklar, kedja från cykel med kedja inne i styrstång och framgaffel för att reglera frambroms. Persson startade en cykelverkstad på regementet S1 i Frölunda 1940 och arbetade där till 1958. Tidigare hade han haft en cykelverkstad i Norrköping.
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 An editor-reviewed English translation has not yet been published; we do not publish machine translations as authoritative text.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
Modern Mechanical Horology (1945 – 1969)
Tool watches for divers, pilots and astronauts; electric watches anticipate the electronic age.
Post-war clocks combined new materials and industrial design: plastic and metal cases, battery-powered transistor movements from the late 1950s, and design classics by George Nelson, Max Bill and others. The first caesium atomic clock (1955) moved the definition of time from astronomy to physics.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking
Atlas type guide
Regulators, wall and Vienna clocks
A regulator is a precision pendulum clock used as a time standard in observatories, workshops and railway offices. Typical features are a deadbeat or Graham escapement, a temperature-compensated pendulum (mercury jar, gridiron or later invar), maintaining power and a regulator dial that separates hours, minutes and seconds. George Graham's deadbeat escapement (c. 1715) and his mercury pendulum, together with Harrison's gridiron, set the pattern for two centuries.
Wall clocks span a much wider range: the elegant Viennese Laterndluhr and Dachluhr of the Biedermeier period, the Dutch stoelklok and staartklok, English 'dial' clocks used in schools, offices and railway stations, and mass-produced spring and weight wall clocks from Germany (Gustav Becker, Junghans, Kienzle) and America.
What to look for
- Deadbeat escapement and compensated pendulum (gridiron rods, mercury jar or wood rod).
- A regulator dial with a large central minute hand and separate hour and seconds dials.
- Vienna regulators: glazed cases, slender pendulum, small weights, enamel two-piece dials.
- German factory trademarks stamped on the backplate (e.g. Gustav Becker anchor and crown, Junghans star).
Dating clues
- Graham-type deadbeat regulators: from c. 1720.
- Viennese Laterndluhr: c. 1800–1850.
- German factory 'Vienna-style' regulators: c. 1870–1930; Gustav Becker serial numbers allow close dating.
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:Deadbeat escapementAnchor (recoil) escapementGrasshopper escapement
Related records
Clocks · c. 1960
Clock, Germany, c. 1960 (no. 58196)
German Clock Museum
Clocks · 1930–1960
Ferranti electric mantel clock. (no. Y1996.10.820)
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · 1931–1970
Clock and drum for recorder, 24 hours, English, 1931–1970.
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · 1937; 1980
Clock by Bestone and Hammond, United States, 1937; 1980
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · 1940–1967
Drum and clock, English, 1940-1947, MO W 5124/ 47/ 57.
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · 1940–1950
Drum and clock. by Smith's English Clocks Ltd., London, for Air Ministry.
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · c. 1946
Smiths Sectric synchronous motor electric wall clock with centre seconds hand, by Smiths English Clocks Ltd, England c. 1946
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · c. 1947
Four studio slave clocks installed at BBC Broadcasting House made by Gents of Leicester.
Science Museum Group, London
