Clocks · Clock
A Fine Dutch Marquetry Inlaid Burl Wood Tall Case Clock, Johannes du Chesne, c. 1770
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- c. 1770
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- Netherlands
- Object type
- Clock
- Materials / technique
- brass, wood
- Auction house
- LiveAuctioneers auction archive
- Lot
- Item 200458910
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: lot 5017, Decorative Art Auction, Leland Little (2025), via LiveAuctioneers
- Catalogue title (original)
- A Fine Dutch Marquetry Inlaid Burl Wood Tall Case Clock, Johannes du Chesne (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by LiveAuctioneers auction archive (lot Item 200458910), this is a clock, made in Netherlands, dated c. 1770. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: brass, wood. 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 — Leland Little
A Fine Dutch Marquetry Inlaid Burl Wood Tall Case Clock, Johannes du Chesne circa 1770, arched brass face with automaton painted scene depicting the nine muses of Greek mythology, above a silvered chapter ring engraved "JOHANNES DU CHESNE / AMSTERDAM" on a gilt metal face with ormolu spandrels, featuring a subsidiary seconds dial with date aperture, two fan shaped sectors indicating the day and month with figural engraved scenes, over an arched moon dial, the weight driven eight day movement striking on two apical bells; the hood with intricate stepped fretwork panels, central turned and gilt wood finial flanked by carved angels on orbs, hinged glazed tombstone door with floral inlays and ormolu capitals, fretwork panel side apertures, the case with a shaped hinged waist door with applied molded edge, floral and banded inlays, ormolu mounted pendulum lenticle featuring Father Time, bombe base with repeating inlays, front ball and claw feet, rear ogee bracket feet. 109 x 27 x 14 in. Interior of waist door with old paper label for J.F. Ulrich, Amsterdam. The grandfather clock was given to Davidson College in 1975 as part of the Florence Clift Horton Estate. Mrs. Horton created the Gordon Clift Horton Scholarship in honor of her son, a 1941 graduate of Davidson. Proceeds from the sale of the clock will be added to the scholarship for students with financial need. Additional high-resolution photos are available at www.lelandlittle.com
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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