Clocks · Clock
Clock by Thomas Wheeler, England, 1670
- Maker / attribution
- Thomas Wheeler (maker)
- Date
- 1670
- Historical period
- Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Clock
- Materials / technique
- Brass, cast, engraved and raised
- Dimensions
- Height: 11 3/4 in
- Holding institution
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- Accession / object no.
- M.2:1-1936
- Credit line
- Bequeathed by Mary Bragg
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by Victoria and Albert Museum, London (object number M.2:1-1936), this is a clock by Thomas Wheeler, made in London, England, dated 1670. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Brass, cast, engraved and raised. Recorded dimensions: Height: 11 3/4 in. The record is illustrated with 1 photograph.
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
Summary — Victoria and Albert Museum
A brass lantern clock, the case with florally engraved dial centre, the pierced front decorated with dolphins and signed 'Thomas Wheeler Londini fecit'. Wheeler was a well-known maker of Lantern clocks with premises in the City of London near the French Church in Threadneedle Street. He was established in the 1650s. This example dates from circa 1670
Physical description — Victoria and Albert Museum
A brass lantern clock, the case with florally engraved dial centre and alarm disc, the pierced front fret decorated with dolphins signed 'Thomas Wheeler Londini fecit'. On four ball feet with a baluster finial.
Historical context — Victoria and Albert Museum
The lantern clock was made for domestic use and was normally wall hung and surmounted by a large bell with a thirty hour movement. The name derives from its resemblance to a lantern or from the term 'latten' another word for brass.
Inscriptions & marks
Thomas Wheeler Londini fecit
Provenance
Made in London by Thomas Wheeler, circa 1670. Bequeathed by Miss Mary Bragg, 1936
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
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.
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