Clocks · Wall clock
Wall clock probably by made by L’Escalier de Cristal, France, c. 1880
- Maker / attribution
- made by L’Escalier de Cristal (probably maker)
- Date
- c. 1880
- Historical period
- Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
- Country of origin
- France
- Place
- France
- Object type
- Wall clock
- Materials / technique
- Bronze, gilded bronze, and cloisonné enamel
- Dimensions
- 94 × 40.6 × 22.9 cm (37 × 16 × 9 in.)
- Holding institution
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Accession / object no.
- 2008.491
- Credit line
- Mary Waller Langhorne Memorial and Harriet A. Fox funds
- Catalogue title (original)
- Wall Clock (English)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by Art Institute of Chicago (object number 2008.491), this is a wall clock by made by L’Escalier de Cristal, made in France, dated c. 1880. The Atlas places it in the Industrial Revolution period (1850 – 1900) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Bronze, gilded bronze, and cloisonné enamel. Recorded dimensions: 94 × 40.6 × 22.9 cm (37 × 16 × 9 in.). The record is illustrated with 1 photograph.
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
Description — Art Institute of Chicago
This bronze and enamel clock originally came to New York in about 1880 shortly after it had been made in Paris by the firm L’Escalier de Cristal (The Crystal Staircase). It had been acquired for the richest man in America, the railroad magnate William H. Vanderbilt, whose wealth was then estimated at $200 million (about $40 billion in today’s money), and whose lavish mansion was then under construction at 640 Fifth Avenue. Most of the furnishings for the Vanderbilt home were made by Herter Brothers, America’s leading interior decorators, but selected works of art, including this clock, were imported from abroad. Vanderbilt only got to enjoy his opulent home for three years before his death in 1885. The clock was a central adornment for the Japanese Parlor, one of the most elaborate and exotic interiors made by Herter Brothers. The room deliberately contrasted with the rest of the interiors, which were firmly rooted in European historical styles. Although dubbed a “Japanese” clock, many of the decorations are actually interpretations of Chinese motifs: the dragons in bronze and cloisonné (inlaid enamel) are traditional Chinese symbols of good fortune, and the numbers on the clock face are Chinese.
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.
Read next:Deadbeat escapementAnchor (recoil) escapementGrasshopper escapement
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