#GOD AS CLOCKMAKER SERIES#

The most popular clocks are mantel clocks with dial and movement supported by pillars that form a series of arcades. That is why the major German 19th-century manufacturers of regulator clocks were never authorized to use the name Vienna Regulator in their catalog, although Vienna-made regulators inspired their forms. Because of the Vienna Clockmakers Corporation’s strict rules, the name Vienna Regulator was applied only to those manufactured within the city’s limits. These are high-precision clocks because of their long pendulum and a recoil-free anchor-type escapement known as the Graham escapement. The famous Viennese regulators were born at the end of the 18th century. They produced for a wealthy clientele watches, travel clocks, and astronomical clocks in the French style with gold and silver ornated cases. Many Swiss and French immigrant clockmakers opened workshops in Vienna. The dials are smaller and Arabic numerals replace Roman numerals. The Austrian Marie Antoinette became the wife of Louis XVI, which influenced the Austrian clockmakers who modeled their creations on French clocks. The introduction of the pendulum affects the development of so-called Kuhschwanz clocks, literally “cow tails.” 1770 and ff. Many furniture clocks were produced in The Cities of Austria, modeled after the English Clock Brackets but more decorated. The famous “Bohemian” wooden clock belonging to Archduke Ferdinand of Tyrol, on display at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, is known from this period. Nikolaus Lanz of Innsbruck produced a spring table clock. End of th e 15 th c.Īustrian domestic clocks were metal shelf Gothic style. In Graz, Styria, a smaller dial containing the Roman numerals I to IIII was added inside the figures of the hours in several clock turrets capable of giving the hours. More prosperous towns had turret clocks mounted in the secular or church towers, some of them able to give the hour but with no great precision. They had sundials and sand glasses to correct the imprecision of these rudimentary movements. At each hour, or when a particular event occurred, they blew a horn or struck the tower bell.

To do so, they had iron-made weight-driven skeleton movement with one hand. The watchman was lodged in high towers, its main task being to watch for enemies or fires and give time to the town inhabitants. The first half of the 15 th century saw the apparition of the so-called watchman clock. The Imperial Court could give clockmakers the right to add one of the mentions after their name: By Her Imperial Highness, Court Appointed or By Her Highness Privilege or Protected by Privileged Guild Relationship. In Vienna, a clockmaker could receive one or the other degree Common Master or Vienna Clockmaker Master. Each city or county could have its corporation. At the time, anybody building clocks without belonging to the Clockmakers Corporation could be imprisoned. The first Austrian watchmaker lived in Olmutz, Bohemia, in 1392.

God as clockmaker