Clocks · Longcase clock
Domestic regulator grandfather clock by Robert Bryson, Edinburgh, c. 1830
- Maker / attribution
- Robert Bryson (maker)
- Date
- c. 1830
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- Scotland
- Place
- Edinburgh
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany
- Dimensions
- Height 6 ft 7 in (201 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 227
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 227)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Domestic Regulator Grandfather Clock by Robert Bryson of Edinburgh (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 227), this is a longcase clock by Robert Bryson, made in Edinburgh, Scotland, dated c. 1830. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: mahogany. Recorded dimensions: Height 6 ft 7 in (201 cm). The record is illustrated with 4 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 Antique Domestic Regulator Grandfather Clock by this very fine Scottish maker. The 8 day duration movement striking the hours on a bell with Deadbeat Escapement and Harrison Maintaining Power. The round silvered brass dial showing both seconds and date. Also with matching blued steel hands and signed by the maker to the base of the dial. The large pendulum bob with a large regulation nut and wooden rod. The panelled mahogany case of drumhead design with excellent flame veneers to both the trunk and base. The hood with glazed concave brass bezel and a plain top. Note: Robert Bryson was an eminent clockmaker who was born in 1778 and died in 1852. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and made a Sidereal Regulator for the Edinburgh Observatory. Maker Robert Bryson of Edinburgh
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.
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