Clocks · Longcase clock
Burr walnut 8-day longcase clock by Joseph Windmills, London
- Maker / attribution
- Joseph Windmills (maker)
- Date
- c. 1695
- Historical period
- Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- walnut
- Dimensions
- Height 206 cm
- Stock no.
- Product 2982
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, The Antique Clock Company (product 2982)
- Catalogue title (original)
- A FINE BURR WALNUT 8-DAY LONGCASE CLOCK – JOSEPH WINDMILLS – LONDON (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by The Antique Clock Company (dealer), Dorset (stock number Product 2982), this is a longcase clock by Joseph Windmills, made in London, England, dated c. 1695. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: walnut. Recorded dimensions: Height 206 cm. The record is illustrated with 5 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
Dealer description — The Antique Clock Company
The movement of 8-day duration is united by six latched knopped pillars, is weight driven with anchor escapement to a pendulum suspended from a hipped back cock, inside count-wheel striking system which strikes the hours to a bell. The movement is further secured to the case by a bracket on the backboard. The oak case is veneered with fine-quality figured burr walnut veneers and the trunk door has a gilt brass lenticle. The sides of the trunk are panelled with book-matched veneers and are fully crossbanded. The walnut veneered hood is flanked by walnut barley-twist columns with wooden capitals and bases, and there is a delicate sound fret below the cross-grain walnut cornice moulding. The 10 ¾ square brass dial with single line border interspersed by foliate engraving, enclosing the elaborate winged cherub head spandrels, silvered Roman and Arabic chapter ring signed on either side of VI – ‘J Windmills – London’. Finely matted centre, subsidiary seconds, and ringed date aperture, with ringed winding squares. Joseph Windmills: Joseph Windmills is recorded as “a great clockmaker” who was free of the Clockmakers Company in July 1671. He worked initially in St Martin le Grand before moving to Mark Lane End Tower Street in 1687. In 1699 he was appointed Warden of the Clockmakers Company and sat on committees alongside his peer Thomas Tompion. In 1702 he succeeded Tompion as Master of the Clockmakers Company. Today he is recognised as one of the important makers of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Height: 81″ or 206 cm Width: 18 ¾” or 48 cm Depth: 10 ¼” or 26 cm
Provenance
Private collection – U.K.
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:Deadbeat escapementAnchor escapement
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