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The Encyclopedia of Horology

Clock type · Domestic

Bornholm Clocks

Partially verified

A Danish tradition of longcase clocks made on the Baltic island of Bornholm, developed after English movements salvaged from a wrecked ship reputedly gave local smiths their first close model for domestic clockmaking, and continuing as a distinct regional case and movement style into the nineteenth century.

Movement & mechanism

  • Weight-driven eight-day movements broadly following English longcase practice, with anchor escapement and rack or locking-plate striking
  • Movement plates and wheel work made locally by Bornholm smiths and later a small organised local trade, rather than imported wholesale from England
  • Seconds pendulum typical of the mature Bornholm longcase tradition, as in English practice

Identification

  • Regional Danish case styling and painted decoration distinct from mainstream English or Dutch longcase cases
  • Maker's names typically in Danish, sometimes with the specific Bornholm town of manufacture inscribed on the dial
  • Movement construction generally follows English eight-day longcase conventions but executed by Danish makers

Terminology

  • Bornholmerur — the Danish term for a Bornholm clock

Known variations

  • Early Bornholm longcase clocks following closely English models
  • Later nineteenth-century Bornholm production with distinct local case decoration

Collecting notes

Bornholm clocks form a well-recognised Danish regional collecting field distinct from, but influenced by, English longcase practice; because the founding narrative involving an English shipwreck is a widely repeated trade tradition rather than a fully documented historical event in every retelling, it should be treated as traditional attribution pending specific verification for any individual clock.

Related photographs

Longcase clock movement
Longcase clock movement — Edmund Beckett (Lord) Grimsthorpe, Public domain. Wikimedia Commons file page
Grandfather clock q
Grandfather clock q — Original uploader was Quadell at en.wikipedia Later version(s) were uploaded by Evertype at en.wikipedia., CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons file page
Longcase clock
Longcase clock — AKS.9955, CC BY-SA 4.0. Wikimedia Commons file page

No confidently matched photograph of this subject has been found yet. These photographs show a closely related record, and are not examples of the type described on this page.

Sources & references

  1. Britten, F. J., Old Clocks and Watches and Their Makers
  2. The founding shipwreck narrative associated with the Bornholm clockmaking tradition is a widely repeated trade account whose precise historical details are not independently verified here.

Where sources disagree, the disagreement is stated rather than resolved silently.