DOI Heft:
Nr. 2-4
DOI Artikel:Mieleszkiewicz, Stefan: Vilnius as a production centre of longcase clocks from the mid-eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth century
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18948#0104
2. Józef Bergmann's
signature on the
dial of the dock
from St. George's
church in Vilnius,
Vilnius, Lietuvos
Nacionalinis Muziejus
(Phot. Stanisław
Stefan Mieleszkiewicz)
plates were usually joined at the corners by pillars (mostly angular). These
clock works had a hook escapement with a massive anchor, count striking and
a Steel dial, usually polychrome. Weight drives were used in such clocks, both
a string drive with eight days’ duration (sometimes lasting a month or a year)
and a chain drive with thirty hours’ duration.
Steel movements of longcase clocks madę by Joseph Bergmann (father)18
in 1785 and 1796 are good examples of this type of mechanism. Their painted
decoration accords with a tendency which started in the late seventeenth
century in North Germany, Saxony and Silesia, also known in Gdańsk, Toruń
and Poznań (ill. 1, 2).
18 “Birdcage” frame clock works from the collection of the National Museum of Lithuania
(Lietuvos Nacionalinis Muziejus, no. inv. IM 5287 and IM 3012). The former, originally from
the Benedictine Convent in Vilnius, with string-weight drive, eight days’ duration, chiming the
even hours and ąuarters, with an exceptionally large painted dial (71.8 x 55.2 cm), signed:
“Josephus Bergmann/w/Wilnie/Roku 1796”. Its original convent use is proved by the painted
decoration mside the hours ring - on the backdrop of the sky, on the left a monk with a crosier
and on the right a nun, both in black frocks, with halos, making orant gestures. The case of
this clock, now lost, known from Narębski’s drawing (Warsaw, Muzeum Narodowe, no. DI
96826-96827), was madę of ash wood with a streak of black oak. The case had bracket legs and
was crowned with a lifted shelf and a lifted top. Both the upper part of the dial and the wing of
the swing door were decorated with the Eye of Providence. The latter clock work, originally from
St. George’s church, has a chain-weight drive with thirty hours’ duration, hook escapement with
a massive anchor and count striking ąuarterly device of Parisian type with two bells. The Steel,
polychrome dial (53 x 42 cm) is signed: “Joseph Bergman/Wilnie 1785”. The inside of the painted
hours ring is decorated with monochrome park wiew, with gate pillars crowned with a vase and
a sphere.
98
signature on the
dial of the dock
from St. George's
church in Vilnius,
Vilnius, Lietuvos
Nacionalinis Muziejus
(Phot. Stanisław
Stefan Mieleszkiewicz)
plates were usually joined at the corners by pillars (mostly angular). These
clock works had a hook escapement with a massive anchor, count striking and
a Steel dial, usually polychrome. Weight drives were used in such clocks, both
a string drive with eight days’ duration (sometimes lasting a month or a year)
and a chain drive with thirty hours’ duration.
Steel movements of longcase clocks madę by Joseph Bergmann (father)18
in 1785 and 1796 are good examples of this type of mechanism. Their painted
decoration accords with a tendency which started in the late seventeenth
century in North Germany, Saxony and Silesia, also known in Gdańsk, Toruń
and Poznań (ill. 1, 2).
18 “Birdcage” frame clock works from the collection of the National Museum of Lithuania
(Lietuvos Nacionalinis Muziejus, no. inv. IM 5287 and IM 3012). The former, originally from
the Benedictine Convent in Vilnius, with string-weight drive, eight days’ duration, chiming the
even hours and ąuarters, with an exceptionally large painted dial (71.8 x 55.2 cm), signed:
“Josephus Bergmann/w/Wilnie/Roku 1796”. Its original convent use is proved by the painted
decoration mside the hours ring - on the backdrop of the sky, on the left a monk with a crosier
and on the right a nun, both in black frocks, with halos, making orant gestures. The case of
this clock, now lost, known from Narębski’s drawing (Warsaw, Muzeum Narodowe, no. DI
96826-96827), was madę of ash wood with a streak of black oak. The case had bracket legs and
was crowned with a lifted shelf and a lifted top. Both the upper part of the dial and the wing of
the swing door were decorated with the Eye of Providence. The latter clock work, originally from
St. George’s church, has a chain-weight drive with thirty hours’ duration, hook escapement with
a massive anchor and count striking ąuarterly device of Parisian type with two bells. The Steel,
polychrome dial (53 x 42 cm) is signed: “Joseph Bergman/Wilnie 1785”. The inside of the painted
hours ring is decorated with monochrome park wiew, with gate pillars crowned with a vase and
a sphere.
98