Tabernacle Clocks

Movement & mechanism

• Spring-driven with a fusee-and-chain (or, in the earliest examples, a stackfreed) to even out mainspring torque
• Verge escapement with a foliot or early balance wheel, predating the pendulum
• Often combining timekeeping with a striking or alarm function, and sometimes an astronomical dial

Identification

• Architectural, tiered gilt-brass case resembling a small tower, shrine or tabernacle
• Engraved gilt-brass panels, often with elaborate figurative or foliate decoration
• Foliot or early balance-wheel regulation rather than a pendulum, consistent with pre-1656 manufacture

Terminology

• Stackfreed — an early mainspring-equalising device, an alternative to the fusee, used chiefly in German clocks of this period
• Foliot — a horizontal balance bar used to regulate verge-escapement clocks before the pendulum

Known variations

• Striking tabernacle clocks
• Tabernacle clocks with astronomical or calendar dials

Collecting notes

Tabernacle clocks are extremely rare survivals from the early history of the spring-driven domestic clock and are collected and studied chiefly at museum level; documented examples are comparatively few and each is normally treated as an individually significant object.