Skeletonised electric mantel clock, 1900-10

In depth

A skeletonised mantel clock under a dome, sold by the Synchronome Company, a major manufacturer of electric clocks during the early twentieth century. This is an impulse dial, which would receive time impulses from a controlling clock elsewhere.

The movement was manufactured for Synchronome by the British United Clock Company, founded in 1885 as a supplier or cheap machine-made clocks using interchangeable parts. Synchronome bought impulse movements from this company from around 1900 until it was sold off in 1910 (providing a likely date range for the current clock). This type of movement was advertised in early Synchronome catalogues as ‘silent’, and therefore appropriate for domestic use, particularly bedrooms. Indeed, the design of this clock, with its skeletonised silvered dial under a small dome may suggest it was intended to be installed in a domestic space rather than the institutional settings with which Synchronome had initially found commercial success.