Floor clock

A unique floor clock made at the workshop of Prince Grigory A. Potemkin in Dubrovna, Belarus, run by Swede Peter Nordsteen. This workshop, which operated between 1784 and 1794, is best known for the manufacture of pocket watches. The Wilanów clock is probably the only surviving large clock from this factory. It shows seconds, minutes, hours and days of the month on a brass dial with concentric scale. There is a seconds hand above the axis of the dial. The mechanism has a weight drive, anchor catch (missing), with a long pendulum on a steel pendant. The hours and half-hours mechanism is comb-shaped, on a single bell (missing). There is also a pinwheel strike regulator. The clock is equipped with a repetition mechanism.

Three-tiered cabinet case made of mahogany stained birch.

The high pedestal, supported by four legs, joins the body with a door equipped with a round glazed peep-hole, allowing observation of the pendulum’s movement. The octagonal hood houses the dial with mechanism. The original gallery at the top of the cabinet has been replaced by a medallion with the sentence: Tempora / mutantur nos / et mutamur in illis (“The times change and we change with them”).

AK