Clocks · Longcase clock
Colchester grandfather clock by John Buffet, c. 1755
- Maker / attribution
- John Buffet (maker)
- Date
- c. 1755
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- oak
- Dimensions
- Height 6 ft 11 in (211 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 211
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 211)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Colchester Antique Grandfather Clock by John Buffet (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 211), this is a longcase clock by John Buffet, made in England, dated c. 1755. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: oak. Recorded dimensions: Height 6 ft 11 in (211 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 — P A Oxley
A fine provincial oak antique grandfather clock by this well known maker. The 8 day duration five pillar movement striking the hours on a bell. The 12" arched brass dial with a matted centre showing seconds, date aperture and finely made blued steel hands. The arch with a silvered brass cartouche showing the makers name with an engraved sunburst in red wax. The very well proportioned oak case with a long trunk door, brass escutcheon and a plain base with double plinth. The hood with attached angle pillars, brass Doric capitals, inspection windows to both sides and a broken arch top. Note: John Buffett was born in 1692. He was baptized on 20th April at St Mary at The Walls Church in Colchester. He was a prolific maker of longcase clocks and watches and worked in Gutter Street. He never married and died in 1758. More details regarding this maker can be found in Clock & Watchmaking in Colchester by Bernard Mason. Maker John Buffet
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
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:Anchor (recoil) escapementDeadbeat escapementAnchor escapement
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