
Clocks · Wall clock
Wall clock, 1990–1999
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- 1990–1999
- Historical period
- Mechanical Renaissance (1990 – 2010)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Place
- Opherten (Gebrauch)
- Object type
- Wall clock
- Dimensions
- Gesamt: Breite: 50 cm; Höhe: 27 cm
- Holding institution
- LVR-open air museum Kommern
- Accession / object no.
- 2015/229 (Inventarnummer)
- Credit line
- LVR-open air museum Kommern
- Catalogue title (original)
- Wanduhr (German)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by LVR-open air museum Kommern (object number 2015/229 (Inventarnummer)), this is a wall clock, made in Opherten (Gebrauch), dated 1990–1999. The Atlas places it in the Mechanical Renaissance period (1990 – 2010) of its Clocks collection. Recorded dimensions: Gesamt: Breite: 50 cm; Höhe: 27 cm. 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
The source record does not include a narrative description. The structured fields above are reproduced from it.
Historical context
Mechanical Renaissance (1990 – 2010)
Mechanical watches return as cultural objects; independent watchmaking flourishes.
Mechanical clocks returned as luxury and craft objects, alongside radio-controlled and designer quartz clocks. Independent makers and restorers revived traditional techniques, and museums increasingly documented industrial and electric clocks as heritage.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Quartz Revolution
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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