Clock type · Domestic
Tabernacle Clocks
Needs researchEarly German and Continental table clocks with an architectural, tower- or shrine-like gilt-brass case (resembling a small tabernacle or reliquary), among the earliest surviving forms of spring-driven domestic timepiece.
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.
Photographs
Photographs are illustrative examples of the type, not necessarily the exact object described. Verify details against the source file page.
Sources & references
- General surveys of early German table clockmaking; comprehensive census data on surviving tabernacle clocks is not compiled here.
Where sources disagree, the disagreement is stated rather than resolved silently.