Asset number
710841001
Description
Year-going table clock; gilded-brass dial with matted centre; silvered chapter-ring and silver spandrels; blued steel hands, minute hand counterpoised; days of week and their corresponding planets shown in apertures; at top is a strike/silent crank. Spring-driven movement, going-train with verge escapement and short pendulum; striking-train with 'rack and snail'; quarter-repeating mechanism can be operated by pulling cord at either side of case; 'rise and fall' regulation operated by precision worm gearing mounted on finely engraved front plate; year duration achieved by use of trains of six wheels accommodated between two sets of plates and driven by massive barrels and great wheels; great, second and third wheels of both main trains are housed in the lower set of plates; remaining wheels, with exception of the going-train crown wheel (which is positioned between the fusees) are all housed in the upper set; drive to the motion work is through a 'floating' centre-wheel; movement is secured to a metal base-plate; case slides down onto the movement from above and is secured to the base-plate. Case of ebony veneered onto oak, mounts of silver and gilded brass; dome bears Royal coat-of-arms and Britannia with shield bearing combined crosses of St George and St Andrew; at corners are rose (England), thistle (Scotland) and lion and unicorn (Royal Supporters); other mounts include emblematic crossed sceptres with crown, military trophies and lion masks; female mask at centre of base is flanked by garlands; pendulum and signature on front-plate visible through glazed aperture in front of which is a repoussé screen centred by a wreath flanked by cherubs seated upon strapwork.
© The Trustees of the British Museum
Using this image
Commercial use
To license images for charged-for journals and publications, and other commercial uses, please contact British Museum Images.
Contact BM images
Non-commercial use
You are permitted to use images from the British Museum website subject to our terms of use.
The image will be released to you under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license. You can read more about the British Museum and Creative Commons here.
Download this image
New photography
If you cannot see an image that you want on the British Museum website, you can order new photography from us.
Order new image