Clocks · Clock
Clock by Thomas Smoult, Newcastle, c. 1785
- Maker / attribution
- Thomas Smoult (maker)
- Date
- c. 1785
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- United Kingdom
- Place
- Newcastle
- Object type
- Clock
- Stock no.
- SKU 512
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Howard Walwyn (SKU 512)
- Catalogue title (original)
- THOMAS SMOULT. A charming George III period Tavern Timepiece (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Howard Walwyn Fine Antique Clocks (dealer), London (stock number SKU 512), this is a clock by Thomas Smoult, made in Newcastle, United Kingdom, dated c. 1785. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. 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
Dealer description — Howard Walwyn
A charming George III period Tavern Timepiece in a very well-preserved black and gilt chinoiserie lacquered case . The decoration to the trunk door is of two oriental figures chatting on steps in front of various pavilions and trees below two stylised birds. The trunk sides are filled with chrysanthemum sprays set within gilt lines. It retains its original gilt foliate decorated swan neck earpieces at the top of the trunk. The black round convex dial has a moulded turned surround. It has gilt Roman numerals, single dots for the minutes circle and Arabic outside five minute markers. The steel hands are well pierced and almost certainly original. The weight driven 8-day movement has A-shaped plates, a five-wheel train with anchor escapement and a steel pendulum rod with brass faced bob and old oblong lead weight. Overall length : 54 in (137 cm) Dial diameter : 24 in (61 cm) * Thomas Smoult is recorded as working in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and retiring in 1791. He was a member of a long family of clockmakers working in Lancaster and Newcastle. In more recent times the clock is reputed to have hung in Denham College, Oxford. HW6386
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
Domestic clocks
A clock combines four systems: a source of power (falling weight, coiled spring, or later electricity), a gear train that divides time, an escapement and oscillator that regulate it (foliot, pendulum or balance), and an indicating system of dial and hands or a bell. Its history runs from the large iron weight-driven clocks of the late thirteenth century to Renaissance spring-driven table clocks, the pendulum revolution of 1656, the factory clocks of the nineteenth century and electric and quartz clocks of the twentieth.
Domestic clocks also reflect regional furniture and decorative traditions — English longcase and bracket clocks, French pendules, Viennese regulators, Black Forest and American shelf clocks — and therefore record changing tastes as much as technical progress.
What to look for
- How the clock is powered: weights, spring barrel, fusee, electric coil.
- The oscillator: foliot, short pendulum, long seconds pendulum or balance.
- Whether it strikes: hour only (count wheel) or hours and quarters (rack striking).
- The maker or retailer's name on dial and movement, and any factory trademarks.
- Signs of alteration — replaced dials, converted escapements, 'married' cases.
Dating clues
- Before 1656 clocks used foliots or balances; after, most domestic clocks have pendulums.
- Anchor escapements spread after c. 1670; minute hands became common at the same time.
- Factory production in America and Germany transformed prices after c. 1840.
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:Verge escapementFoliot
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