Portal clock
The portal clock, also known as a column clock, is a variant of the floor clock in which two or more columns form a kind of portal and carry the clockwork that is built into the superstructure.
description
A portal clock is a table pendulum clock . The clockwork, usually in a drum-shaped case with a round dial , forms a portal-like and open structure with the base as well as the beams and the roof. Forerunners of the portal clock are known from the 17th century. The classic form of the portal clock first emerged in the French Directoire and spread through the Empire , late Classicism to Biedermeier . The geographic distribution went from France via southern Germany to Vienna and then further east. Today a distinction is made between a French and an Austrian or southern German version .
French expression
Most French portal clocks have a classic Empire portal. The structure consists either of fire-gilded bronze , of cut glass or marble , less often of wood. The appliqués are cast from bronze and also fire-gilded. These clocks usually have a high quality eight - day movement with a temperature-compensated pendulum . The half-hour strike strikes a bronze bell with a hammer . Some French cantilever chairs are also known in this form , where their own clockwork forms the pendulum lens.
Southern German-Austrian expression
Portal clocks were very popular and widespread in the Vienna area between 1820 and 1850. They were offered in many variations, from simple two-pillar clocks on wooden bases, the so-called janitorial clocks , to the sumptuous housekeeping clocks with mirrored case back walls. The imagination of the case makers has developed in all directions with the Austrian portal clocks. The structure is mostly made of wood with pressed sheet metal appliqués, the columns are often made of alabaster .
The movements of the Austrian portal clocks, mostly one-day movements, are usually not as elaborately constructed as the French ones. Striking mechanisms strike simple gongs . The visible pendulum is often decorated. Higher quality clocks often also have a machine or a musical mechanism .
Web links
- Search for portal clock in the German Digital Library
- Column clock. Bavarian television, accessed on July 24, 2013 (short film).
- Portal clocks. Andreas Rauhut, accessed on July 24, 2013 .
- Portal clock. Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, accessed on July 24, 2013 .
- Detlef Knick: Viennese portal clocks. Retrieved July 24, 2013 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Fritz von Osterhausen: Callweys lexicon . Munich 1999, ISBN 3-7667-1353-1 ; P. 253
- ↑ Portal clock. UhrenLexikon, accessed July 24, 2013 .
- ↑ a b Viktor Pröstler: Callweys manual of the clock types. From the wristwatch to the zappler . Callwey Munich 1994, ISBN 3-7667-1098-2 ; P. 78f
- ↑ Jürgen Abeler : Ullstein clock book; a cultural history of time measurement . Ullstein; Frankfurt am Main, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-550-06849-2 , p. 165