Clocks · Longcase clock
Early painted dial longcase clock by William Clarke, Cerne Abbas, c. 1785
- Maker / attribution
- William Clarke (maker)
- Date
- c. 1785
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- Cerne Abbas
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- oak
- Dimensions
- Height 6 ft 9 in (206 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 398
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 398)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Early Painted Dial Longcase Clock by William Clarke of Cerne Abbas (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 398), this is a longcase clock by William Clarke, made in Cerne Abbas, England, dated c. 1785. 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 9 in (206 cm). The record is illustrated with 5 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 oak longcase clock of good small proportions and colour. The 8 day duration movement striking the hours on a bell and with an early example of a 12" square painted dial with both seconds and date to the centre and featuring blued steel hands. The corners painted with raised gold Gesso work. The desirable oak flat top case of good colour with a long trunk door incorporating a cast brass escutcheon. The plain base with a single shaped plinth. The hood with a flat top, plain angle pillars terminating with gilt wooden capitals and detailed work above the dial. Note: This is an excellent example of Provincial Clockmaking and was made in Cerne Abbas in the late 18th century, home of the Cerne Abbas Hill Figure. William Clark is listed as working in Cerne Abbas during the latter half of the 18th century. Maker William Clarke of Cerne Abbas
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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