Clocks · Clock
A George I green japanned eight-day longcase clock, c. 1720
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- c. 1720
- Historical period
- Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
- Country of origin
- Japan
- Object type
- Clock
- Materials / technique
- brass
- Auction house
- LiveAuctioneers auction archive
- Lot
- Item 52130645
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: lot 659, The Spring Sale - Day 2, Dreweatts Donnington Priory (2017), via LiveAuctioneers
- Catalogue title (original)
- A George I green japanned eight-day longcase clock, (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by LiveAuctioneers auction archive (lot Item 52130645), this is a clock, made in Japan, dated c. 1720. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: brass. The record is illustrated with 2 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 — Dreweatts Donnington Priory
A George I green japanned eight-day longcase clock, James Stevens, London, circa 1720, the four pillar inside countwheel bell striking movement with 12 inch brass break-arch dial with border-engraved calendar aperture and star decorated subsidiary seconds to the matted centre within applied silvered Roman numeral chapter ring with fleur-de-lys half hour markers and signed James Stevens, London to lower edge, the angles with twin cherub and crown cast spandrels beneath arch applied with a rococo scroll cast cartouche centred with a silvered boss decorated with a mask and flanked by winged cherubs and putti holding flaming torches beneath upper border engraved with a curved herringbone decorated band, in a green ground gilt decorated case with domed caddy surmount above cavetto cornice and three-quarter columns to hood door, the trunk with rectangular door decorated in raised polychrome and gilt with oriental figures and pagodas within gilt foliate trail decorated borders, on conforming plinth base with moulded double skirt (case with restoration), 236cm (93ins) high. James Stevens is recorded in Baillie, G.H. Watchmakers & Clockmakers of the World as working in London circa 1710.
Historical context
Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
Huygens' pendulum and balance spring transform accuracy; English makers develop the anchor and deadbeat escapements.
Huygens's pendulum (1656–57) improved clock accuracy from about a quarter of an hour to under a minute a day. The anchor escapement (c. 1670) and the long seconds pendulum created the longcase clock; London makers such as Fromanteel, Knibb, Tompion and Quare led European clockmaking, and French makers created the Boulle pendule.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Renaissance 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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