Clocks · Wall clock
Wall clock in a papier mâché case with painted decoration. English, mid 19th century.
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- 1830-1870
- Historical period
- Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- England
- Object type
- Wall clock
- Materials / technique
- papier mâché
- Dimensions
- Height: 79.7 cm; Width: 48.3 cm; Depth: 11.4 cm
- Holding institution
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- Accession / object no.
- W.27:1-1929
- Credit line
- Given by Mrs Ada Borner in memory of her husband Hermann Edward Frederick Borner
Record summary
Held and catalogued by Victoria and Albert Museum, London (object number W.27:1-1929), this is a wall clock, made in England, dated 1830-1870. The Atlas places it in the Industrial Revolution period (1850 – 1900) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: papier mâché. Recorded dimensions: Height: 79.7 cm; Width: 48.3 cm; Depth: 11.4 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
V&A — Summary
Wall clock in a case of papier mache, decorated with mother of pearl, gilt arabesques and painted flowers. The plain dial is enamelled white and surrounded by a projecting band of brass.
V&A — Physical description
Wall clock in a black papier mâché case with painted floral decoration. White dial in a round aperture
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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