‘Black and White Werder’

Kroeger Clock, 1798 (MC0037)

This clock was made in the Werder style in 1798, possibly by Peter Kroeger, a brother to Johann Kroeger (1754–1823). Johann moved to what is now Ukraine and settled in Rosenthal in 1804, but his brother Peter stayed in Prussia (in the Vistula Delta region, present-day Poland).

It is unknown who the first owners of the clock were. Abram (1835–1897) and Anna (Loewen) Penner (1854–1909) brought it to Canada in 1875 and had it with them when they settled in North Dakota, USA. It was handed down to their daughter Justina (1897–1966), who married Jacob H. Heinrichs (1892–1940) in 1922 and settled in Manitoba, Canada. After Justina's death, the clock passed to her son, Reynold. He and his wife, Cecile, donated the clock to Mennonite Heritage Village in Steinbach, Manitoba, Canada, in 1991.

The face was repainted at an unknown date. According to Arthur Kroeger, the initials on the face represent the first owners. When a couple got married, the groom received a clock from his parents and they had the young couple’s initials painted on the clock face, as well as the year. It is possible, however, that the initials represent the English word ‘made’.

• Description Thirty-hour wall clock with pendulum and weight-driven movement, possibly made by Peter Kroeger (ca. 1781–?) in the Grosser Werder, the area between the Vistula and Nogat rivers in what is now Poland, in 1798. Round dial with a decorative bonnet is white with a single black border around the perimeter. Decorative bonnet has a white background with a hand-painted black scroll decoration in the centre. Chapter ring is the same colour as the dial, with black Roman numerals; a black inner ring marks the minutes. Inside this ring is a hand-painted black scroll decoration with ‘MADE 1798’ written in black. One hand; rope drive; two weights.

• Mennonite Clock Number MC0037

• Object Name Kroeger Clock

• Mennonite Heritage Village Accession Number 1991.33.1

• Date Created 1798

• Maker Possibly Peter Kroeger (1781–?)

• Location Made Grosser Werder, Prussia (now Poland)

• Other Markings PK 1798 (stamped on mechanism)

• Movement Type Iron plate

• Owner Mennonite Heritage Village

• Publications Arthur Kroeger, Kroeger Clocks (Steinbach, MB: Mennonite Heritage Village, 2012), p. 80.

• Notes
  For a clock (MC0068) with a very similar stamp on the hour wheel, also made in 1798, see Czas Odmierzany, by Paweł Fietkiewicz et al. (Muzeum Narodowe W Gdańsku, 2003), pg. 16.

  See MC0257 (‘Frankenclock’) for a clock that is also marked with the initials ‘PK’.

  The long-nosed number 1 stamped on the hour wheel is very similar to that which was used to stamp clocks made in Rosenthal.