Question about wall clock history

Discussion in 'Antique Discussion' started by bluemoon, Jun 6, 2017.

  1. bluemoon

    bluemoon Member

    I haven't had any luck finding pictures of so called Vienna clocks on the walls of late 19th century and early 20th century houses.
    All the images available on the internet show these clocks against plain white background or some modern apartment or establishment.
    How were such clocks were incorporated into an interior back in the day? I refer to the renaissance revival style German clocks of the 1880-1910's.
    As I understand, Vienna clocks or regulators were and are extremely common, but exactly how common and did the size of the clock reflect the house it was in? Were they only seen in certain types of houses, or all classes and all sizes?
     
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  2. say_it_slowly

    say_it_slowly The worst prison is a closed heart

  3. gregsglass

    gregsglass Well-Known Member

    Hi,
    They were called Vienna Regulators since they only showed the time. They did not ring or chime which would throw off the time.
    greg
     
    Last edited: Jun 6, 2017
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  4. bluemoon

    bluemoon Member

    I'm talking about this kind of clocks:

    http://antique-clock.com/GINO/G30day-ribbon1.jpg

    All the Vienna regulators I've encountered had a chime. Am I talking about some different clock type?
     
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  5. bluemoon

    bluemoon Member

    I wonder if that's a small apartment in New York or a parlour in a big house.
     
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  6. say_it_slowly

    say_it_slowly The worst prison is a closed heart

    bluemoon likes this.
  7. afantiques

    afantiques Well-Known Member

    The clock partially shown in the picture does not look like a Vienna to me.The dial is too large. It is also too short. Probably an American wall clock from one of the many makers. I'd date it around 1900 from what I can see.

    The true Vienna regulator started out as an Austrian made wall clock around the early to mid 19th C. They were relatively plain (check Biedermeir style) and usually high quality and price I doubt if many founnd their way to America at the time. They were usually timepieces
    No Vienna regulater type clock ever chimed. At most some had hour strike or grand sonnerie strike. A chime is at least 4 notes.
    Typically they had seconds pendulums which meant they were at least 4 feet long overall, grander ones even larger.


    The German clock makers started making cheaper versions, ranging from just a bit cheaper and rather fancier to very cheap and downright crude versions. They abandoned the seconds pendulum and went for a 3/4 second or shorter, although the 3/4 seconds one still retained the subsidiary seconds dial despite the fact that it went round in 45 seconds instead of a minute. Once again I doubt if many would have found their way to America as the market there had plenty of wall clocks of all descriptions locally made. My uncle in NJ had a very fine Vienna like clock, made if I rememeber correctly by E Howard of Boston.

    Given the price range available I'd expect pretty well anybody with a job could have had a wall clock, cheap or better as they could afford. They probably located them pretty much the same way anyone would nowadays, somewhere there was space and they looked goor or at least OK.
     
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