Clocks · Longcase clock
Domestic regulator longcase clock by James Bell, Edinburgh, c. 1850
- Maker / attribution
- James Bell (maker)
- Date
- c. 1850
- Historical period
- Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
- Country of origin
- Scotland
- Place
- Edinburgh
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany
- Dimensions
- Height 6 ft 7 in (201 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 399
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 399)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Domestic Regulator Longcase Clock by James Bell of Edinburgh (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 399), this is a longcase clock by James Bell, made in Edinburgh, Scotland, dated c. 1850. The Atlas places it in the Industrial Revolution period (1850 – 1900) 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 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 quality Domestic Regulator with unusual gong striking. The 8 day duration movement striking the hours on a gong which is mounted on the backboard. The substantial movement also with Deadbeat Escapement and Harrison Maintaining Power. The round silvered brass dial showing seconds, Roman numerals, matching blued steel hands and the makers name engraved above the number VI. The dial framed within a gilt wooden sight ring. The plain mahogany case of perfect proportions and featuring fiddle back veneer, a glazed trunk door with a veneered backboard. The glazed door displaying a fine pair of brass cased weights, a substantial wood rod pendulum with rating nut for extra precision regualtion and in beat scale mounted to the rear of the case. The plain base features a single plinth and to the pediment, a typical Edinburgh architectural top. Note: James Bell is listed as working during the early part of the 19th century and was based at number 3 Potterow, Canongate. In the 1841 Census he was 40 years old, married and had 5 children. Maker James Bell of Edinburgh
Historical context
Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
American interchangeable-parts manufacture; railroad time standards; Swiss and German factory systems.
Factory production transformed the clock into an everyday object. American makers (Seth Thomas, Ansonia, Waterbury) and German factories (Junghans, Gustav Becker, Lenzkirch) sold millions of shelf, wall and alarm clocks worldwide; France produced standardised Paris movements and carriage clocks; electric time distribution began.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Precision & Scientific 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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