Clocks · Longcase clock
Devonshire longcase clock by Long, Tiverton, c. 1845
- Maker / attribution
- Long (maker)
- Date
- c. 1845
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- Tiverton
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany, ebony
- Dimensions
- Height 7 ft 5 in (226 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 432
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 432)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Devonshire Longcase Clock by Long of Tiverton (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 432), this is a longcase clock by Long, made in Tiverton, England, dated c. 1845. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: mahogany, ebony. Recorded dimensions: Height 7 ft 5 in (226 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 Devonshire mahogany longcase clock with rare Hunting scene to the arch. The 8 day duration movement striking the hours on a bell and with an arched white dial displaying a Roman chapter ring, seconds, date, jumping foxes to the corners and the rare scene of a Huntsman and Foxhounds chasing a fox. The flame mahogany veneered case with boxwood and ebony inlay throughout and the trunk door flanked by spiral columns with brass Doric capitals. The hood also with Doric capitals and spiral columns and topped with a crested pediment with three brass finials. The base with similar veneers and inlay and large ogee shaped feet to the front of the clock. Note: John Long of Tiverton was born on 10th March 1821. He established a business in Bampton Street, Tiverton in 1842. He was listed as a Goldsmith, Jeweller and watch and clockmaker and unusually an inventor. He died at Bradninch on 23rd October 1887. This particular clock features a Huntsman and is Foxhounds to the arch. This clock was almost certainly made for a member of the local Hunting community. Maker Long of Tiverton
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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