Editing Cuckoo clock (section)

===First cuckoo clocks made in the Black Forest===
[[File:Du320.png|thumb|right|Early cuckoo clock with exposed movement and shield decorated with a painted paper, Black Forest, 1760–1780 (Deutsches Uhrenmuseum, Inv. 03–2002)]]
[[File:Wildi-Kuckuck.jpg|thumb|right|Early cuckoo clock with exposed wooden movement and shield decorated with a glued, painted paper, Johannes Wildi, [[Eisenbach]], c. 1780 (Deutsches Uhrenmuseum, Inv. 2008–024)]]

It is not clear who built the first cuckoo clocks in the Black Forest,<ref>Also refer to the discussion on the origin of the Black Forest cuckoo clock to: Richard Mühe, Helmut Kahlert and Beatrice Techen, ''Kuckucksuhren'' (München, 1988): pp. 7–14.</ref> but there is unanimity that the unusual clock with the bird call very quickly conquered the region. By the middle of the 18th century, several small clockmaking shops between [[Titisee-Neustadt|Neustadt]] and [[Sankt Georgen im Schwarzwald|Sankt Georgen]]<ref name="blog.deutsches-uhrenmuseum.de-2017b">{{Cite web |url=https://blog.deutsches-uhrenmuseum.de/2017/07/13/erste-kuckucksuhren/|publisher=blog.deutsches-uhrenmuseum.de|title=Die ersten Schwarzwälder Kuckucksuhren (Teil 1) (The First Black Forest Cuckoo Clocks (Part 1))|language=de|date=2017-07-13|access-date=2022-08-04}}</ref> were making cuckoo clocks out of wood and shields decorated with paper.<ref>Miller, Justin, Rare and Unusual Black Forest Clocks, (Schiffer 2012), p. 30.</ref> After a journey through south-west Germany in 1762, Count [[Giuseppe Garampi]], Prefect of the [[Vatican Archives]], remarked: "In this region large quantities of wooden movement clocks are made, and even if they were not completely unknown earlier, they have now been perfected, and one has started to equip them with the cuckoo's call."<ref name="blog.deutsches-uhrenmuseum.de-2017b"/>

It is hard to judge how large the proportion of cuckoo clocks was among the total production of early days Black Forest clocks. Based on the proportion of pieces surviving to the present, it must have been a small fraction of the total production.<ref>Helmut Kahlert, ''Die Kuckucksuhren-Saga, Alte Uhren'', No. 4 (1983): pp. 347–353; here p. 349.</ref> Especially 18th century cuckoo clocks, in which all the parts of the movement, including [[gears]], were made of wood. They are extremely rare, Wilhelm Schneider was only able to list a dozen of pieces with wooden movements in his book ''Frühe Kuckucksuhren (Early Cuckoo Clocks)'' (2008).<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://blog.deutsches-uhrenmuseum.de/2021/12/01/raetsel-aeltesten-kuckucksuhren/|publisher=blog.deutsches-uhrenmuseum.de|title=Rätsel um eine der ältesten Kuckucksuhren (Mystery about one of the oldest cuckoo clocks)|language=de|date=2021-12-01|access-date=2022-08-04}}</ref> The cuckoo clock remained a niche product until the middle of the 19th century, made by a few specialized workshops.<ref name="blog.deutsches-uhrenmuseum.de-2017b"/>

Regarding its murky origins, there are two main fables from the first two chroniclers of Black Forest horology which tell contradicting stories about it: The first is from Father Franz Steyrer, written in his ''Geschichte der Schwarzwälder Uhrmacherkunst (History of the Art of Clockmaking in the Black Forest)'' in 1796. He describes a meeting, happened around 1742,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Steyrer|first=Franz|url=http://www.stegen-dreisamtal.de/Steyrer_Uhrenmacher.html|title=Geschichte der Schwarzwälder Uhrenmacherkunst|publisher=stegen-dreisamtal.de|language=de|access-date=2022-08-09}}</ref> between two clock peddlers (''Uhrenträger'', literally "clock carriers", who carried the dials and movements on their backs displayed on huge backpacks), Joseph Ganther from Neukirch (Furtwangen) and Joseph Kammerer from [[Furtwangen]], who met a travelling Bohemian merchant who sold wooden cuckoo clocks. When they returned home, they brought with them this novelty, since it had caught their eyes, and show it to Michael Dilger from Neukirch and Matthäus Hummel from Glashütte, who were very pleased with it and began to copy it. Its popularity grew in the region and more and more clockmakers started making them.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Steyrer|first=Franz|url=http://dl.ub.uni-freiburg.de/diglit/steyrer1796/0030?sid=d10a5fa82d3d4865cdb0b94966534ed0|title=Geschichte der Schwarzwälder Uhrenmacherkunst (pp. 18-19)|publisher=Digital Collections Freiburg.University of Freiburg|language=de|access-date=2022-08-09}}</ref> With regard to this chronicle, the historian Adolf Kistner claimed in his book ''Die Schwarzwälder Uhr (The Black Forest Clock)'', published in 1927, that there is not any Bohemian cuckoo clock in existence to verify the thesis that such a clock was used as a sample to copy and produce Black Forest cuckoo clocks. Bohemia had no fundamental clockmaking industry during that period.

The second story is related by another priest, Markus Fidelis Jäck, in a passage extracted from his report ''Darstellungen aus der Industrie und des Verkehrs aus dem Schwarzwald (Descriptions of the Industry and  Transport of the Black Forest)'', (1810) said as follows: "The cuckoo clock was invented (in the early 1730s) by a clock-master [Franz Anton Ketterer] from [[Schönwald im Schwarzwald|Schönwald]]. This craftsman adorned a clock with a moving bird that announced the hour with the cuckoo-call. The clock-master got the idea of how to make the cuckoo-call from the bellows of a church organ". Unfortunately, neither Steyrer nor Jäck quote any sources for their claims, making them unverifiable.<ref>Johannes Graf, ''The Black Forest Cuckoo Clock. A Success Story''. NAWCC Bulletin, December 2006: p. 647.</ref>

As time went on, the second version became the more popular, and is the one generally related today, though evidence suggests its inaccuracy.<ref name="Johannes Graf">Johannes Graf, ''The Black Forest Cuckoo Clock: A Success Story''. In: NAWCC Bulletin, December 2006: p. 651.</ref> This type of clock is much older than clockmaking in the Black Forest. As early as 1650, the mechanical cuckoo was part of the reference book knowledge recorded in handbooks. It took nearly a century for the cuckoo clock to find its way to the Black Forest, where for many decades it remained a tiny niche product.

In addition, R. Dorer pointed out in 1948 that Franz Anton Ketterer (1734–1806) could not have been the inventor of the cuckoo clock in 1730, because he had not yet been born. This statement was corroborated by Gerd Bender in the most recent edition of the first volume of his work ''Die Uhrenmacher des hohen Schwarzwaldes und ihre Werke (The Clockmakers of the High Black Forest and their Works)'' (1998) in which he wrote that the cuckoo clock was not native to the Black Forest and also stated that: "There are no traces of the first production line of cuckoo clocks made by Ketterer". Schaaf, in ''Schwarzwalduhren (Black Forest Clocks)'' (1995), provides his own research which leads to the earliest cuckoos having been built in the [[Franconia]] and [[Lower Bavaria]] area, in the southeast of Germany, (forming nowadays the northern two-thirds of the Free State of Bavaria), in the direction of [[Bohemia]] (nowadays the main region of the [[Czech Republic]]), which he notes, lends credence to the Steyrer version.

Although the idea of placing an automaton cuckoo bird in a clock to announce the passing of time did not originate in the Black Forest, the cuckoo clock as it is known today (in its traditional form decorated with wood carvings) comes from this region located in southwest [[Germany]]. The Black Forest people who created the cuckoo clock industry developed it, and still come up with new designs and technical improvements.
[[File:Lacquered shield cuckoo clock, ca. 1860.jpeg|thumb|right|Lacquered shield cuckoo clock depicting [[Triberg]]'s marketplace at its top, Karl Kern, [[Schönwald im Schwarzwald|Schönwald]], c. 1860 (Deutsches Uhrenmuseum, Inv. 2019–012)]]
Even though the functionality of the cuckoo mechanism has remained basically unchanged, the appearance has changed as case designs and clock movements evolved in the region. Around 1800, the first lacquered shield clocks appeared,<ref name="blog.deutsches-uhrenmuseum.de-2017c">{{cite web |url=https://blog.deutsches-uhrenmuseum.de/2017/07/20/ersten-kuckucksuhren-2/ |title=Die ersten Schwarzwälder Kuckucksuhren (Teil 2) (The first Black Forest cuckoo clocks (Part 2)) |publisher=blog.deutsches-uhrenmuseum.de |language=de |date=2017-07-20 |access-date=2022-08-04}}</ref> the so-called ''Lackschilduhr'' ("lacquered shield clock"), characterized by having a painted flat square wooden face behind which all the clockwork was attached. On top of the square was usually a semicircle of highly decorated painted wood which contained the door for the cuckoo. These usually depicted floral motifs, like roses, and often had a painted column, on either side of the chapter ring, others were decorated with fruits as well. Some pieces also bore the names of the bride and bridegroom on the dial, which were normally painted by women.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.antique-horology.org/_Editorial/BlackForestClocks/default.htm |title=Pier Van Leeuwen, "Clocks from the Black Forest (1740–1900)" (2005): in the Museum of the Dutch Clock website |publisher=Antique-horology.org |date=2005-10-31 |access-date=2014-06-03}}</ref> There was no cabinet surrounding the clockwork in this model. This design was the most prevalent during the first half of the 19th century.
[[File:Biedermeier style cuckoo clock, 2nd half 19th century.jpg|thumb|left|A ''[[Biedermeier]]'' style cuckoo clock with two columns at the front flanking the dial, Black Forest, second half 19th century (Deutsches Uhrenmuseum, Inv. 09–2018)]]
By the middle of the 19th century, Black Foresters began to experiment with a variety of forms. In the 1840s,<ref name="blog.deutsches-uhrenmuseum.de-2017"/> the [[Johann Baptist Beha|Beha]] company had already been selling ''Biedermeier'' style table cuckoo clocks. Up until now, clocks had mainly been manufactured with a large shield hiding the movement behind, without a case surrounding it. Now, for the first time, timepieces with a real case were produced in large numbers. These clocks with their simple geometric shapes, some with small columns on both sides of the dial for decoration, are reminiscent of the art of the ''[[Biedermeier]]'' period. Such pieces were built between 1840 and the 1890s<ref>Beha cuckoo clock catalogue from ca. 1895 shows two different models in the Biedermeier style in page 5</ref> - and sometimes a cuckoo was included in these simple "''Biedermeier'' clocks".<ref name="blog.deutsches-uhrenmuseum.de-2017c"/> Some models had also a painting of a person or animal with moving eyes.
[[File:Rahmenuhr mit Blechschild "Kuckucksuhrenwerkstatt".jpg|thumb|right|Picture frame cuckoo clock, painting on a [[tin]] plate by J. Laule, depicting a scene of a Black Forest clockmaker's shop. [[Furtwangen]], c. 1860 (Deutsches Uhrenmuseum, Inv. 07–0068)]]
Towards the middle of the 19th century until the 1880s, picture frame cuckoo clocks also became available. As the name suggests, these wall timepieces consisted of a picture frame, usually with a typical Black Forest scene painted on a wooden background or a sheet metal, [[lithography]] and [[screen-printing]] were other techniques used. Other common themes depicted were; hunting, love, family, death, birth, mythology, military and Christian religious scenes. Works by painters such as Johann Baptist Laule (1817–1895) and Carl Heine (1842–1882) were used to decorate the fronts of this and other types of clocks. The painting was almost always protected by a glass and some models displayed a person or an animal with blinking or flirty eyes as well, being operated by a simple mechanism worked by means of the pendulum swinging. The cuckoo normally took part in the scene painted, and would pop out in 3D, as usual, to announce the hour.
[[File:Picture frame cuckoo clock, 2nd half 19th century.jpg|thumb|right|Picture frame clock with a serially stamped brass plate at the front, c. 1850-1880 (Deutsches Uhrenmuseum, Inv. 05–3775)]]
Another type of picture frame clock (''Rahmenuhr'') produced in the region from the middle of the 19th century, was based on a Viennese model from around 1830.<ref name="blog.deutsches-uhrenmuseum.de-2017c"/> The front of these timepieces was decorated with a serially stamped [[brass]] plate. The brass was given a gold-coloured surface by polishing it or treating it with [[nitric acid]]. Some of these pieces, which were produced in large numbers up until the 1880s, were also available with a cuckoo mechanism.<ref name="blog.deutsches-uhrenmuseum.de-2017c"/>

As for house-shaped cases, in the 1870s the [[Johann Baptist Beha|Beha]] company marketed table and wall models of considerable size, so-called ''Herrenhäusle'' ("House of Lords", a [[manor house]] or [[mansion]]), whose detailed wooden cases replicated attic windows from where the cuckoo pop out, a shingle roof with chimney, rain gutters and downpipes, etc.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.antiquecuckooclock.org/gallery.html|title=The Richards' Collection |publisher=antiquecuckooclock.org|access-date=2022-09-08}}</ref>

On the other hand, from the 1860s until the early 20th century, cases were manufactured in a wide variety of styles such as; Neoclassical or Georgian (certain pieces also displayed a painting), [[neo-Gothic]], [[neo-Renaissance]], [[Baroque Revival architecture|neo-Baroque]], [[Art Nouveau]], etc., becoming a suitable decorative object for the bourgeois home. These timepieces are less common than the popular ones looking like gatekeeper-houses (''Bahnhäusle'' style clocks) and they could be mantel, wall or bracket clocks.

However, the popular house-shaped ''Bahnhäusleuhr'' ("railway-house clock") virtually forced the discontinuation of other styles within a few decades.

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px">
File:KM - Kuckucksuhr 1790.jpg|Lacquered shield cuckoo clock painted with roses, 19th century
File:Picture frame cuckoo clock, ca. 1870.jpg|Picture frame timepiece, c. 1870. Enamel dial in a rectangular painting on a sheet metal: a hunter lies in wait for a hovering bird of prey, while two boys look at the tree stump in which the camouflage cuckoo's door is located (Deutsches Uhrenmuseum, Inv. 05–0962)
File:Biedermeier style cuckoo clock.jpeg|''[[Biedermeier]]'' syle piece without the two columns at the front, second half 19th century
File:Cuckoo clock, ca. 1885.jpg|A neo-Baroque spring driven, mantel clock, attributed to [[Johann Baptist Beha]], c. 1885. Original door missing (Deutsches Uhrenmuseum, Inv. 15–3833)
File:Cuckoo clock, Black Forest, ca. 1890.jpeg|A neo-Renaissance example, dial with cartouches of Roman numerals, c. 1890 (Deutsches Uhrenmuseum, Inv. 09–3936)
File:Cuckoo clock with echo, ca. 1890.jpg|Castle-like ruins clock case with echo. There is a second smaller cuckoo partially visible in the sentry box at left, c. 1890 (Deutsches Uhrenmuseum, Inv. 1995–638).
File:Cuckoo clock, ca. 1880.jpg|An [[Eclecticism in art|eclectic]] style piece, combining Gothic and oriental decorative motifs, like the two [[dragons]] on its curved roof. Fürderer, Jaegler und Cie, [[Titisee-Neustadt|Neustadt]], c. 1880 (Deutsches Uhrenmuseum, Inv. 07–3772)
File:Cuckoo clock, 1885.jpg|Another eclectic style example, case designed by Robert Bichweiler and crafted by Johann Winterhalder in Urach. The movement comes from Beha und Söhne in Eisenbach, 1885 (Deutsches Uhrenmuseum, Inv. 07–0325).
</gallery>