
Clocks · Clock
Clock by Wilson & Gandar, Southampton Street, Strand, c. 1859
- Maker / attribution
- Wilson & Gandar (maker)
- Date
- c. 1859
- Historical period
- Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
- Country of origin
- United Kingdom
- Place
- Southampton Street, Strand
- Object type
- Clock
- Dimensions
- Height 28 cm
- Stock no.
- SKU 450
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Howard Walwyn (SKU 450)
- Catalogue title (original)
- WILSON & GANDAR. A very attractive English library clock. (English)
View the source record (dealer listing) ↗ (opens another website in a new tab)Suggest a correction
Record summary
Catalogued by Howard Walwyn Fine Antique Clocks (dealer), London (stock number SKU 450), this is a clock by Wilson & Gandar, made in Southampton Street, Strand, United Kingdom, dated c. 1859. The Atlas places it in the Industrial Revolution period (1850 – 1900) of its Clocks collection. Recorded dimensions: Height 28 cm. 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 very attractive English library clock , the bronze case retaining its original ormolu mounts, feet, frets and mouldings . The high quality double fusee movement runs for a week and strikes the hours on a bell. The clock has a four-inch silvered brass dial with moon-shaped hands and the maker’s signature is beautifully engraved on the dial. Height: 11 in (28 cm) Depth: 6 ¾ in (7 cm) Width: 8 in (17 cm) * Wilson and Gandar are listed on page 846 of Brian Loomes’ Clockmakers of the World: 21 st Century Edition. They were operating at their Strand address between 1851 and 1875.
Historical context
Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
American interchangeable-parts manufacture; railroad time standards; Swiss and German factory systems.
Factory production transformed the clock into an everyday object. American makers (Seth Thomas, Ansonia, Waterbury) and German factories (Junghans, Gustav Becker, Lenzkirch) sold millions of shelf, wall and alarm clocks worldwide; France produced standardised Paris movements and carriage clocks; electric time distribution began.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Precision & Scientific 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.
Related records
Clocks · c. 1870
Wall Clock by Potts & Sons, Leeds, c. 1870
Pendulum of Mayfair (dealer), London
Clocks · c. 1880
Grandfather Clock by Lowe & Sons, Chester, c. 1880
Pendulum of Mayfair (dealer), London
Clocks · c. 1880
G and T Hammond, Manchester, c. 1880
Pendulum of Mayfair (dealer), London
Clocks · c. 1880
American Wall Clock retailed by T P Joyce, Manchester, c. 1880
Pendulum of Mayfair (dealer), London
Clocks · 1830–1870
Wall clock in a papier mâché case with painted decoration. English, mid 19th century.
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Clocks · 1840–1900
Alarm clock, mounted on model of coffin with skeleton, probably English, 1840–1900
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · 1840–1880
Clock dial marked "Potter, Railway Time" with two hands, unknown maker, British, 1840–1880
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · 1840–1877
Electric clock of the Bain type
Science Museum Group, London
