Clocks · Wall clock
Wall clock by Lambert, Colchester, c. 1860
- Maker / attribution
- Lambert (maker)
- Date
- c. 1860
- Historical period
- Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- Colchester
- Object type
- Wall clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany, ebony
- Dimensions
- Height 20 in (51 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 240
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 240)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Antique Wall Clock by Lambert of Colchester (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 240), this is a wall clock by Lambert, made in Colchester, England, dated c. 1860. The Atlas places it in the Industrial Revolution period (1850 – 1900) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: mahogany, ebony. Recorded dimensions: Height 20 in (51 cm). 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
Dealer description — P A Oxley
A good quality antique mahogany drop dial wall clock. The 8 day duration single fusee movement with anchor escapement. The 12" flat round dial with Roman numerals, blued steel hands and signed Lambert - St Botolph Street, Colchester. The mahogany case with access doors to the base and the side of the case. The glazed brass bezel with a slivered brass sight ring and a bevelled flat glass. The front elevation veneered with well figured mahogany and inset with a pendulum viewing window edged with brass and ebony. The case also retaining its original carved mahogany ears. A excellent example of a mid 19th century drop dial wall clock. Maker Lambert of Colchester
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
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.
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