Clocks · Wall clock
Wall clock, Germany, 1948
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- 1948
- Historical period
- Modern Mechanical Horology (1945 – 1969)
- Country of origin
- Germany
- Place
- Black Forest
- Object type
- Wall clock
- Holding institution
- German Clock Museum
- Accession / object no.
- Museu_ProvidedCHO_museum_digital_59376__technical_number_
- Catalogue title (original)
- Wanduhr, Schwarzwald, um 1948 (German)
Record summary
Held and catalogued by German Clock Museum (object number Museu_ProvidedCHO_museum_digital_59376__technical_number_), this is a wall clock, made in Black Forest, Germany, dated 1948. The Atlas places it in the Modern Mechanical Horology period (1945 – 1969) of its Clocks collection. 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
Catalogue description from German Clock Museum (German)
Diese Wanduhr wurde 1948 von einem us-amerikanischen Versandhaus angeboten. Schnäppchenjäger konnten die Uhr , wie es im beigelegten Faltblatt heißt, wie die meisten anderen Artikel für einen Dollar erwerben. Sie konkurrierte dabei mit einer indischen Handtasche aus Sari-Stoff oder handgeschnitztem Salatbesteck aus Kenia. Die Uhr ist damit ein gutes Beispiel dafür, dass Deutschland in der unmittelbaren Nachkriegszeit kulturell und weltwirtschaftlich auf das Niveau eines Entwicklungslandes gesunken war - zumindest in der Wahrnehmung einiger US-Bürger. Das wird auch in der Beschreibung der Uhr deutlich: Sie stamme aus dem "legendären Schwarzwald Europas", wo "weltbekannte Holzschnitzer und Uhrmacher" sie anfertigten. (Deutsches Uhrenmuseum Furtwangen)
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 An editor-reviewed English translation has not yet been published; we do not publish machine translations as authoritative text.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.
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