Laterndluhr
The Viennese Laterndluhr is a wall clock from the Biedermeier period in the area of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire . The clock has a three-part structure with a roof-shaped finish and a seconds pendulum in the middle .
history
In the first half of the 19th century, around 1800, a unique Viennese style of simple pendulum clocks developed . These wall and floor clocks are mostly provided with a protruding upper part, have a three-sided glazed clock case with a long middle part and a widening lower part in which the pendulum swings and are therefore known colloquially as lantern clocks due to their lantern-like appearance. This type of watch can still be found today in the area of the former Austro-Hungarian Danube Monarchy - in the current states of Austria , Hungary , the Slovak Republic , the Czech Republic , Serbia , Slovenia , Bosnia-Herzegovina , Croatia and Italy ( Trentino-South Tyrol ).
The formal development of the Laterndluhr goes back to the English grandfather clocks of the 18th century, from which it took over the triangular gable. The upper ends of the cases in the early clocks still have a flat stepped finish, the lower part is still closed at the side. The bottom door, where the pendulum lens is visible, can be pushed up or sideways. The triangular gable can be found later from around 1820 on the entire territory of the former Austro-Hungarian Danube Monarchy. The early lantern clocks were made by the watchmakers Philipp Fertbauer, Caspar Brändl, Matthias Wibral and Anton Glückstein in Vienna, and in the Hungarian half of the empire by Franz Seiffner and Joseph Lechner in Pest , Joseph Rauschmann in Ofen ( Buda ) and Joseph Lehrner in Kaschau .
Function and structure
The Laterndluhr is a regulator that is attached to a wall, free from vibrations, in order to achieve accuracy. The brass adjusting screws attached to the side of the housing for fixation and adjustment are characteristic. From around 1790, mahogany with lightly contrasting veins or edges in maple, ebonized pear wood and later mainly walnut and cherry wood as well as burl wood were used as wood for the clock case. The cases were made by the watch case manufacturers as suppliers to the watchmakers. The following professions are mentioned in their historical job titles as further suppliers to the master watchmakers: dial smelter, bell foundry , gong manufacturer, clockwork polisher, drive manufacturer, engraver , gilder , pointer maker, etc.
With most of the Laterndluhren the dial sits freely behind the glass door of the case head. Watches from Fertbauer, Brändl, Glückstein (Vienna) and Seiffner in Pest, on the other hand, have a wooden front end wall of the head part into which the dial is embedded and covered by a convex watch glass with a gold-plated bezel . The front is occasionally decorated with decorations or ebonized columns. The dials were convex in the early days, later flat. There were enamelled or silver-plated metal dials, some made of frosted glass or a few fire-gilded , guilloché and engraved . Joseph Lechner in Kaschau, for example, made a skeletonized annual clock with a transparent glass dial with an enamelled signature. The hoops, also called bezels , were produced in different widths, engine-turned and fire-gilded. The use of Roman hour numerals was common. The manufacturers' names were usually painted on the dial, but dates are extremely rare.
In the case of the pendulums , care was taken to ensure the lowest possible thermal expansion to ensure accuracy ( compensation pendulum ). For the majority of the pendulums, dried and varnished fir wood was used, otherwise they were made of steel or brass. The suspension is known as the spring or blade suspension. The pendulum lens is made of polished brass and is hollow for 8-day movements and filled with lead for monthly to yearly clocks. The pendulum clocks are usually driven with weights (lead in polished brass sleeves), only very rarely does the drive run via a spring drive (also with a worm). The longer the running time, the larger (and therefore heavier) the weights had to be.
Lantern clocks were built in different sizes depending on the length of the pendulum. The oscillation period of one second, with a precisely built movement, still provides excellent accuracy today ( seconds pendulum ). The prerequisite is an average length of the housing of 145 cm. Depending on the manufacturer, there is a great variety of movement constructions; the majority are eight-day movements and monthly movements with or without a striking mechanism. The running times vary between 1, 4, 6 weeks, 2, 3, 6 or 9 months up to watches with annual running times and above.
To protect the movement, Viennese watchmakers such as Philipp Happacher, Philipp Fertbauer, Ignaz Marenzeller, Caspar Brändel, Anton Glückstein and Joseph Binder encapsulated the movements with faceted glass panes. Franz Lobmeyer in Tyrnau , Joseph Lehrner in Kaschau , Josef Rauschman in Ofen , Franz Seiffner in Pest and Karl Zelisko and Josef Kossek in Prague worked similarly .
In the early days of this type of clock, the hammers of the movements hit bells; from around 1815 blued gongs were used. Half, full or quarter hours are struck - the so-called Viennese strike , which works with two striking mechanisms, can be recognized by the three winding holes in the dial. There are also some watches with a repeater .
The technical versions of the works are very numerous. At the trade exhibition in Vienna in 1845, the watchmaker Alois Schenk exhibited a precision pendulum clock with a compensation pendulum that was developed for the time service of observatories and had a duration of 3 years and two months. Additional indications (sub-dials) for day of the week, date, month, zodiac , leap year correction , mean and true solar time , moon phase and moon age , equation or world time dial distinguish some masterpieces in particular.
literature
- Erika Hellich: Old Viennese clocks. The Sobek Collection in the Geymüller-Schlössl . 1750-1900 . Callwey, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-7667-0448-6
- FH van Weijdom Claterbos: Viennese Clockmakers […] . Interbook International BV, Schiedam (NL) 1979.
- Rick Ortenburger: Vienna Regulators and Factory Clocks . Schiffer Publishing Ltd., West Chester (USA) 1990, ISBN 978-0-88740-224-1 .
- Victor Kochaver: Beautiful Vienna Regulators of the 19th Century […] . Minneapolis (USA) 1999.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Fritz von Osterhausen: Callweys lexicon . Munich 1999, ISBN 3-7667-1353-1 ; P. 184
- ↑ Viktor Pröstler: Callweys manual of the clock types. From the wristwatch to the zappler . Callwey Munich 1994, ISBN 3-7667-1098-2 ; P. 128
- ↑ The Viennese Laterndluhr. In: Kunsthandel Stephan Andréewitch. March 1, 2012, accessed March 21, 2012 .