Clocks · Longcase clock
Cumbrian grandfather clock by Taylor, Whitehaven, c. 1775
- Maker / attribution
- Taylor (maker)
- Date
- c. 1775
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- Whitehaven
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- walnut
- Dimensions
- Height 7 ft 9 in (236 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 215
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 215)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Antique Cumbrian Grandfather Clock by Taylor of Whitehaven (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 215), this is a longcase clock by Taylor, made in Whitehaven, England, dated c. 1775. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: walnut. Recorded dimensions: Height 7 ft 9 in (236 cm). The record is illustrated with 6 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
An excellent example of Cumbrian Clockmaking with exceptional workmanship to the rare Virginian Walnut case. The 8 day duration movement striking the hours on a bell. The 13" arched brass dial with silvered brass chapter ring enclosed by cast brass spandrels. The silvered brass centre profusely engraved with scrolls and swags. The centre also featuring a concentric date and blued steel hands. The arch with a painted and silvered brass moonphase with well painted country scenes. The typical Cumbrian case with excellent Virginian Walnut flame veneer to the both the long trunk door and the raised shaped panel to the base. The trunk also with reeded quarter pillars, wooden capitals and blind fretwork below the hood moulding. The base with ogee feet and canted corners. The hood with reeded pillars to both front and back with wooden capitals, swan neck top incorporating blind fretwork and dentil moulding, gilded flower paterae and a walnut finial to the centre. Note: William Taylor is thought to have been born in 1738. He worked in King Street and was a prolific maker of longcase clocks throughout the latter part of the 18th century. He died in 1801. Historical Note: In 1778 perhaps when this clock was made an American war ship attacked the port of Whitehaven. This attack destroyed three ships. Maker Taylor of Whitehaven
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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