Clocks · Clock cabinet
Clock cabinet by Mayne Swete, England, c. 1725
- Maker / attribution
- Mayne Swete (Maker)
- Date
- c. 1725
- Historical period
- Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- Devon
- Object type
- Clock cabinet
- Materials / technique
- walnut, brass (alloy), ivory, ebony, veneering, clock-making
- Dimensions
- Height: 295 cm; Width: 105 cm; Depth: 67 cm; Weight: 23.4 kg (W.64:11 weight 10/10/2025 NH); Weight: 50 approx kg (W.64:12 weight 10/10/2025 NH); Weight: 40 approx kg (W.64:13 weight 10/10/2025 NH)
- Holding institution
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- Accession / object no.
- W.64-1925
- Credit line
- Purchased from E Lyall Swete, London
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by Victoria and Albert Museum, London (object number W.64-1925), this is a clock cabinet by Mayne Swete, made in Devon, England, dated c. 1725. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: walnut, brass (alloy), ivory, ebony, veneering, clock-making. Recorded dimensions: Height: 295 cm; Width: 105 cm; Depth: 67 cm; Weight: 23.4 kg (W.64:11 weight 10/10/2025 NH); Weight: 50 approx kg (W.64:12 weight 10/10/2025 NH); Weight: 40 approx kg (W.64:13 weight 10/10/2025 NH). 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
The cabinet is said to have been made in Plymouth. The musical clock was made by Mayne Swete as a gift for his brother, Adrian Swete of Trayne, Modbury, South Devon, who became High Sheriff of the county in 1724 and died in 1733. Mayne Swete had a private forge where he made this mechanical instrument, taking seven years to complete the task at a cost of £200. He was also a keen campanologist and headed the bell-ringers of Modbury when they won a competition held at Totnes. Inside the top section of the cabinet is a bell to strike the hours and a carillon with 27 bells tuned in semi-tones, played by means of a small keyboard or by a brass cylinder set with pines in the manner of a musical box. The latter plays a tune every three hours and the cylinder can be replaced on Sundays to play a psalm.
Physical description — Victoria and Albert Museum
Clock in square case of walnut with arched top, decorated with acanthus moulding and fretwork frieze and side panels, surmounted by four scrolls which meet to support a gilt pineapple. It stands on a cabinet made in two parts. The upper half has a gilt pineapple at each corner. In front are two doors with moulded panels. The lower part has two doors in front with moulded panels and rests on four small feet. Inside the upper half are the works and twenty eight bells tuned in semitones to play three octaves by means of an ivory and ebony keyboard. The dial has a gilt symmetrical design of openwork scrolls in the arch and in the spandrels is similar ornament with masks.
Brief description — Victoria and Albert Museum
Clock and carillon, made by Mayne Swete, Trayne, Modbury, Devon, in about 1725
Provenance
Clock with carillon by Mayne Swete, between 1700-1735, purchased for £115 on 15.10.25 from E Lyall Swete (108, St. Mary’s Mansions, W2) Notes from R.P. 25/7446 There is extensive correspondence on R P files and reports from E Lyall Swete regarding the history of the clock, its maker, and detailed reports of provenance and repairwork. These are best summed up by a 1957 letter from F & W in response to an inquiry about the clock (attached here). 24/9/25 minute paper notes that Mr Lyall Swete altered the date on the non plate "but this could be removed". 26/10/25 minute paper, O Brackett notes that "the clock is of considerable importance and of fine workmanship……the design of the lower part (forming a cabinet for the works) is excellent…" 27/10/25 minute paper, E Maclagan writes "It is an extremely fine piece of work and in every way suitable for a Museum. The comparatively plain lower part would….be of greatest service to practical designers". Information regarding the provenance is recorded in the department object file.
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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