In the space between the windows in the dining room of the Apartment-Museum of the Ulyanov Family, a clock in a carved wooden case is displayed. The top of the case is decorated with a carved turret. The front side has a door, which is also decorated with carvings and inlays. Dials are installed in the upper part of the object: in the outer circle the dial has large Roman numerals, in the inner circle there are small Arabic numerals. A glass arch-shaped door is built into the lower part; behind it a pendulum with two weights and chains is visible. They are pulled down into the rectangular hole of the bottom of the case. Vertical rectangular glazed windows are installed on the sides.
There is evidence that the first wall clocks appeared in Ancient Greece. There were also vertical sundials in Byzantium. They were located on the walls of churches and public buildings. At the same time, numbers began to be depicted on the dials.
By the 15th century, mechanical clocks appeared, but they were considered a luxury item and were not available to everyone. Most people continued to find out the time by the tower clock. Sundials also remained in use.
In the middle of the 16th century, brass was increasingly used in production. Craftsmen from England used brass and copper-based alloy to create lucerne clocks. The lucerne clock got its name from the Latin “lucerna”, which means “lamp”, “lantern”.
At that time, wall clock mechanisms began to become fashionable. They were available only to very rich people and were often art objects. The main design element of such clocks was a floral ornament, which was depicted on the dial.
When working on the mechanism, the masters noticed that the longer the pendulum, the more accurate the clock shows the time. For this reason, many devices of that period were equipped with heavy and very long pendulums, because of which the clock was always raised high above the floor.
