Skip to content
The Encyclopedia of Horology

Clock type · Specialist

Monastic (Gothic) Clocks

Partially verified

Early iron-framed wall clocks used in monasteries and domestic settings before the widespread use of brass.

Movement & mechanism

  • Hand-forged iron frames and wheels
  • Weight-driven with verge and foliot escapement
  • Large single hand or rotating dial

Identification

  • Open iron frame (birdcage style)
  • Large weights on ropes
  • Foliot (weighted horizontal bar) at the top

Terminology

  • Gothic clock
  • Foliot
  • Iron-frame

Known variations

  • Domestic and larger monastery versions

Collecting notes

Condition and originality are paramount. For technical clocks like regulators or atmospheric clocks, the completeness of the original mechanism is more important than case condition. For decorative clocks (Boulle, Empire), the quality of the case craft is central.

Related photographs

Clock Tower - Palace of Westminster, London - September 2006
Clock Tower - Palace of Westminster, London - September 2006 — Diliff, CC BY 2.5. Wikimedia Commons file page
Clock Tower - Palace of Westminster, London - September 2006-2
Clock Tower - Palace of Westminster, London - September 2006-2 — Diliff, CC BY 3.0. Wikimedia Commons file page
Exeter (Devon, UK), Clock Tower -- 2013 -- 1395
Exeter (Devon, UK), Clock Tower -- 2013 -- 1395 — Dietmar Rabich, 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. Loomes, B., The Early Clockmakers of Great Britain
  3. Roberts, D., British Skeleton Clocks
  4. Museum catalogue records

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