How to Identify Cuckoo Clock Pictures

Cuckoo clocks are popular novelties. Known for the cuckoo that calls the hours, cuckoo clocks are actually only one of several kinds of clocks made famous in Germany's Black Forest. A variant of the cuckoo was the framed clock, or Rahmenuhr. The framed clock featured a clock face surrounded by painted decoration. The style was most popular in the 19th century. The design and technique of cuckoo clock pictures help identify and date the Rahmenuhr.

Instructions

1. Observe the general form of the cuckoo clock. Most cuckoo clocks resemble chalets or railway houses. A small clock face sits below the cuckoo door. Look for other figures and carvings that decorate the face and borders of the clock case.

2. Look at the arrangement of the decoration on the face of the cuckoo clock. If most of the surface is covered with scenes, or repeated images of figures, then the clock is most likely a framed clock. Typical Rahmenuhrs from the mid-19th Century feature images drawn from the daily life of the Black Forest. Hunting scenes are common, as pictures of lovers, soldiers, priests and local animals and birds.

3. Examine the glass cover on the face of the cuckoo clock. Not all framed clocks have these covers, but they are an essential feature of the earliest style of Rahmenuhr. Made as early as 1750, these Hinterglasmalerei have pictures painted directly on the back of the glass.

4. Feel the texture of the cuckoo clock pictures and examine the tone of the clock surface. Paintings on zinc were a feature of framed clocks as early as 1830. The style was fashionable in the 1880s.

5. Look for the presence of pressed brass. The brass itself may sometimes be coated with chrome. Pictures on brass, or brass and chrome, was a technique used on cuckoo clocks made in the 1840s. The metals were also sometimes stained before receiving the final decorative scenes and figures.

6. Note the presence, or absence, of porcelain columns framing the actual cuckoo clock face, or dial. The dial itself may be enameled. This style of Rahmenuhr was developed in about 1860 to appeal to more sophisticated city dwellers. It was the last of the classic Rahmenuhr styles to appear.

Tips & Warnings

• Cuckoo clocks with pictures may or may not actually have cuckoos. Many Rahmenuhr incorporate the traditional cuckoo into the design, but others dispense with this familiar feature or replace it with mechanical eyes that follow the movement of the pendulum.

• A Rahmenuhr more closely resembles an ordinary wall clock. A heavy wooden frame encloses the face of the Rahmenuhr, making the clock appear flat, like a picture.

• The name Hinterglasmalerei actually means "behind the glass" and is the German term for what, in English, is called reverse glass painting.

• Some cuckoo clocks with pictures do not have any paintings at all. Rare examples of framed clocks sport faces decorated with embossed metal.

References

• Cuckoo Clock Types
• Cuckoo Clock History and Rahmenuhr
• Frame Clock Styles