Bakelite Table Clocks and Desk Clocks

Travel alarm clock by Junghans, circa 1960s. Original condition. Brass with dark faux leather cover. Still working. Measures: open height 8cm, wide 7cm, deep 8cm Closed height 3...

Rare Lucite and brass Telechron Model 7H141 Electric desk clock featuring a brass face with a bubble glass front fitted inside a highly polished square acrylic block with brass feet....

German Art Deco wood round wall clock by Kienzle International, 1920s Wall clock in wood. The round quadrant has a beige background with black numbers, black hands and a glass closur...

This wall clock was produced by Pragotron in former Czechoslovakia during the 1960s. The piece features a brown bakelite frame, white bakelite dial, aluminum hands and a curved clear...

This wall clock was produced by Pragotron in former Czechoslovakia during the 1970s. The piece features a dark brown (black) bakelite frame, a black bakelite dial, an aluminum hands ...

Superb 1930s, Art Deco chrome and yellow bakelite clock with a modernist feel. Made by Genalex an English company. Early plastic perspex in mustard yellow with chrome numerals and be...

Industrial wall clock Pragotron. Frame made of bakelite. The clock face is covered with glass. Formerly a slave clock, it is now fitted with a modern quartz movement with an AA-batte...

Vintage square wall clock was made by Prim in former Czechoslovakia during the 1970s .. It features a white bakelite body and a convex clear glass cover with chrome ring. The clockw...

Interestingly, while nearly all of the designs that came out of George’s studio were attributed to him, many were actually designed by him and his team. Some were even designed solely by someone else working at the studio. Nelson famously recounted the story of how the Ball Clock came to life in an interview decades after it’s release: “It was one of the really funny evenings. Noguchi came by, Bucky Fuller came by, and here was Irving, and here was I, and Noguchi - who can’t keep his hands off anything - he saw we were working on clocks and started making doodles. Then Bucky sort of brushed Isamu aside. He said, ‘This is a good way to do a clock’ and made some utterly absurd thing. Everybody was taking a crack at this, pushing each other aside and making scribbles. At some point we left – we were suddenly all tired, and we’d had a little bit too much to drink – and the next morning I came back, and here was this roll of paper, and Irving and I looked at it, and somewhere in this roll, there was a ball clock. I don’t know to this day who cooked it up.” Nevertheless, whoever it was that came up with George Nelson’s designs, it’s almost certain that they would never have come to fruition if it wasn’t for George’s vision and forward-thinking approach. Can you tell me more about his clocks? George’s clocks were one of his most impressive bodies of work. In total, he and his team designed over 130 clocks in just three decades. While it is widely accepted that Irving Harper was the lead designer for the Howard Miller Clock Company at George Nelson Associates, the collection arose after two insightful observations from George: one, that people no longer used the numbers to tell the time; and two, that since most people now used their wristwatch to tell the time, interior clocks were now free to become more decorative in nature. The clocks were designed and released in batches of 8 and were initially only given numbers for names. The Sunflower Clock was simply ‘Clock 2261’, the Flock of Butterflies Clock was 'Clock 2226’, and so on. The Ball was the first clock designed by George and his team and it was followed shortly after by the Star, Sunburst, Spindle, Asterisk, Turbine, Flock of Butterflies, Eye and others. The clocks were purposefully abstract and were designed to complement the modernist furniture emerging at the time. As well as wall clocks, George’s studio also produced a series of desk clocks during that time, most notably the bubble-shaped Night Desk...

French Art Deco mantel clock set in the style of Sue & Mare, France, circa 1925. Marble, brass and glass. Measures: The clock height 11.8" (30 cm), width 11.8" (30 cm), depth 3.9" (1...

Striking 70s space age clock by Japy France perfectly blending retro futurism with bold visual flair. Featuring a large rectangular frame softened by curvaceous edges, it sports a vi...

Alabaster with brass movement, digits and pointer, made in Germany in the 1930.