Carved Vienna Regulator

Here's an interesting piece. It's another Vienna Regulator with a very lovely carved case. The case is carved is a rare hardwood, possibly mahogany.















The weight doesn't match. It's got a Jugendstil-style weight and the pattern doesn't quite match the bob and case. I've been reading about diy chemical etching and will one day try to make a weight shell that matches.

If you like this clock, be sure to check out our Amerling regulator with it's fine "Bird's-Eye" Maple case.

"Vienna" Regulators have often been the standard for fine mechanical wall clocks. Their elegant proportions, and high-quality mechanisms create what is for many the epitome of accurate and stylish mechanical wall clocks.

Speaking of Clock Peddlers...

Justin just contributed a great post on his new antique clock peddler figurine. I particularly like the porcelain dial on his piece, and the fact that the man is carrying extra pendulums.



The clock peddler is a character that has all but disappeared from our lexicon of memories. Clock peddlers in the Black Forest used to carry their wares on a large backpack.

After toiling the winter months away in a crowded workshop over his wares, a clock peddler greeted warmer months by wandering over the hills and through storybook forests hundreds of years ago, matching painted dials and interesting animated scenes to the customers' choice of mechanisms.



This is a particularly unique example. The figurine above is a new hand-made piece that's still available. Housed inside the hand-carved body is a tiny mechanical mechanism with bellows and a multi-pitch whistle that plays a tune on demand. The mechanism is made by hand in Germany and is completely mechanical without any use of speakers or electronics. These are mechanical-musical instruments.

Rare Early Black Forest peddler Timepiece C. 1850

We just recently added this early Black Forest clock to our collection. This is a Period piece made C. 1850. The peddler has become a symbol for the Black Forest and these clock have been made from 1850 up until present day (with major differences).



Our peddler is made from tin on a fantastic burl wood base and stands 15" tall.

The paint on the figure is original and untouched, with very minor loss.

In his hands he holds a miniature functioning timepiece that is 3" tall. The clock works is a thick brass plate miniature clock work.




This clock has its original "mock" weights... pendulums in hand and "mock" time piece on his back. The dial of the clock on his back lifts up to revel a compartment to hold the key... he even has its original miniature key.

This is the second period peddler timepiece we have owned, we traded our last one off as it had too much repaint for our liking, and he was missing his clock on his back.




This example was purchased by the previous owner while being stationed in Germany during WWII. It has been in a box in storage for over 50 years... and was wrapped in old German newspaper from the time.

We are excited to get a very clean original example of this hard to find BF clock for our collection.

What's a Fusee Anyway??

Let's take a quick look at some of the terms that have been mentioned in recent posts.  To do that, we'll start at the basics of how mechanical clocks are usually powered.

The clocks featured in recent posts are built before the general use of electricity.  Steam engines would normally be too large and inefficient to power such small devices, plus you would have continually stoke it to keep the clock running over night.  So what powers these clocks?

We've discussed examples of the very earliest clocks that run on water power, but the tried and true method of running an accurate timepiece is to harness the power of gravity.  This is the original GREEN power.  Gravity is constantly renewable and reliable.  As long as we have a planet, we have gravity.  Weight-driven clocks also have the advantage of being very accurate.  The force of gravity is always constant in any particular location, so the clock won't speed up or slow down at any point because of an increase or decrease of power.

Weights get in the way sometimes though.  What do you do if you want to make a smaller clock that fits on a shelf?  There would be no room to fit the weights.  Early American clockmakers solved the problem by making really tall shelf clocks with weights hidden in the sides of the case.

Eventually (in the1400's)  the obvious solution became to use the recoiling power of a metal spring.  The spring didn't require the space that weights did, but the power of a spring does diminish as the spring winds down.  This would cause the clock to slightly slow down - hence the Fusee.

The Fusee is essentially a cone shaped wheel, connected to a powered spring barrel.  As the spring applies pressure to the inside of the barrel, it turns, and pulls on the chain connected to the cone.  As the chain is pulled from the cone to the barrel less force is required because of the increasing radius of the cone. This compensates for the weakening power of the spring towards the end of its power cycle.

As you can tell, cutting a fusee accurately requires an expert machinist and craftsman.  Only the finest, most expert clocks incorporated fusees.

Eventually, finicky and delicate fusee mechanisms became obsolete due to more accurate and more reliable advancements in escapements.  Today, very few mechanical clocks have fusees and they have become largely a fascination and curiosity among horologists.

We have several posts that talk about this interesting element of horology.  Click here for more posts about the Fusee.

Looking Back in Time, part 1

This is the first of a series of posts about interesting early clocks. and the new clocks that were inspired by them.

Su Song was a renowned Chinese statesman, astronomer, cartographer, horologist, pharmacologist, mineralogist, zoologist, botanist, mechanical and architectural engineer, poet, antiquarian, and ambassador of the Song Dynasty (960-1279). He was the engineer of a water-driven mechanical clock in medieval Kaifeng which used an escapement similar to the modern anchor escapement. It was also the first known clock to use the "endless chain drive."

The clock was a giant astronomical clock with mechanically animated puppets.



For more new clocks similar to this ancient idea, check out our website at www.NorthCoastImports.com