Clocks · Longcase clock
Early & small mahogany longcase regulator by Hampston Prince & Cattles, York
- Maker / attribution
- Hampston Prince & Cattles (maker)
- Date
- c. 1790
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- York
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany
- Dimensions
- Height 209 cm
- Stock no.
- Product 2436
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, The Antique Clock Company (product 2436)
- Catalogue title (original)
- EARLY & SMALL MAHOGANY LONGCASE REGULATOR – HAMPSTON PRINCE & CATTLES OF YORK (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by The Antique Clock Company (dealer), Dorset (stock number Product 2436), this is a longcase clock by Hampston Prince & Cattles, made in York, England, dated c. 1790. 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 209 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 — The Antique Clock Company
A very attractive mahogany longcase regulator. The case with arched top surmounted by a small cresting, has canted and brass inlaid corners and an opening front door with a round glazed aperture for the round dial. The trunk with full length opening door with fine quality flame mahogany veneers and surrounded by a strong moulding. The panelled base also with fine quality flame veneers. The inside of the trunk door has a printed equation table with various inscriptions marked on it in pen, the earliest from about 1826. The eight-day movement is of fine quality with six nicely shaped pillars, maintaining power and a Graham deadbeat escapement. The wheels run within screwed end caps. The clock employs a wood rod pendulum with a massive brass bob with a calibrated rating nut below which is a large silvered calibrated sphere which can be screwed up or down for further fine adjustment. The dial has a cutout below the centre arbor for the hours, a large minute chapter ring and a smaller seconds ring below 12 o’clock. It is signed for the maker ‘Hampston, Prince & Cattles, York.’ Hampston, Prince & Cattles are recorded as working in York between 1777 and 1810. John Hampston was born in 1739. He was a clockmaker, silversmith, jeweller and goldsmith. He died 26 th January 1805. The dates for John Prince are a little unclear but it is believed he was born in 1748 and died in 1835. He was apprenticed in 1778 to Thomas Willans of York, surgeon, instrument maker and cutler. Robert Cattle was born in 1767. He was a watchmaker and a silversmith, Sheriff of York 1816 and Lord Mayor in 1841. He died on the 14 th October 1842. The company, Hampston, Prince & Cattles, were also jewellers and goldsmiths. Further details can be found in “Yorkshire Clockmakers” by Brian Loomes. Height: 82″ or 209cm (To top of finial)
Provenance
Private collection U.K.
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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