Clocks · Clock
19th Century Mahogany Longcase Clock with Painted Dial
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- 19th century
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany, brass, iron
- Auction house
- Invaluable auction listings
- Lot
- Lot C4703D5F91
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: lot 160, Vintage & Antique Estate Collectibles & Sterling Silver, TEG Auction Gallery (2026), via Invaluable
- Catalogue title (original)
- 19th Century Mahogany Longcase Clock with Painted Dial (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Invaluable auction listings (lot Lot C4703D5F91), this is a clock, dated 19th century. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: mahogany, brass, iron. The record is illustrated with 4 photographs.
Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.
Catalogue description
Lot description — TEG Auction Gallery
A 19th-century mahogany-cased tall-case clock featuring a hand-painted arched dial. The mahogany case is constructed with figured veneers and features a swan-neck pediment with a central brass boss, supported by fluted columns on the hood. The trunk is detailed with fluted quarter-columns flanking a shaped door with crossbanded borders. The arched dial is painted in an off-white color with an allegorical scene in the arch depicting a female figure in a yellow gown holding a sword and scales, representing Justice. The dial includes a Roman numeral hour chapter ring, Arabic numeral minute markers, a subsidiary seconds dial, and a date aperture. Below the center arbor is a painted inscription; while most characters are worn, the legible portions read M, A, W, N followed by S and D, E, R, B, Y. The clock is powered by an eight-day, weight-driven brass movement with two winding drums and a strike-on-bell mechanism. The lot includes the wooden case, the disassembled movement mounted on its seat board, two cast iron cylindrical weights with integrated hooks, a pendulum with a rod and heavy lead bob, and a t-shaped winding key.
Historical context
Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
Harrison solves longitude; Mudge invents the lever; Breguet's Paris workshop defines the modern watch.
The age of the deadbeat escapement, compensated pendulums and observatory regulators. Domestic clocks spread through the middle classes: English longcase and bracket clocks, French gilt-bronze mantel clocks, Viennese Biedermeier wall clocks, Black Forest painted-shield clocks, and the first American shelf clocks.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Early Modern Horology
Atlas type guide
Longcase (tall-case or grandfather) clocks
The longcase clock was born from two seventeenth-century innovations: Christiaan Huygens's pendulum (1656–57) and the anchor escapement (c. 1670). A long seconds pendulum, nearly a metre long, swings with a small arc, and enclosing it together with the driving weights in a tall wooden case protected the mechanism and created a new piece of furniture. London makers such as Ahasuerus Fromanteel, Thomas Tompion and Joseph Knibb set the pattern.
By the eighteenth century longcase clocks were made throughout Britain, the Netherlands, Scandinavia (the Swedish Mora clock), France (the Comtoise from the Franche-Comté), Germany and colonial America. Eight-day movements with two weights became standard in better clocks; thirty-hour clocks with one weight and a rope or chain were cheaper alternatives.
What to look for
- Winding holes in the dial: two (eight-day, going and striking) or none (thirty-hour, pulled up by a chain).
- Brass dials with applied chapter rings (earlier) versus painted iron 'white' dials (after c. 1770 in Britain).
- Moon-phase arches, date apertures, seconds dials and maker's name on the dial.
- Case woods and style: ebonised, walnut marquetry, lacquer, oak or mahogany; regional styles from London, Lancashire, Scotland or America.
- Whether the movement and dial match the case — 'marriages' are common.
Dating clues
- Square brass dials suggest c. 1670–1720; arched brass dials c. 1715–1790.
- Painted (white) dials were made by Birmingham dial-makers from about 1772.
- Comtoise clocks with repoussé pendulums are mostly nineteenth century.
General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.
Read next:Anchor (recoil) escapementDeadbeat escapementAnchor escapement
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