Clocks · Longcase clock
Edinburgh longcase clock by John Breakenrig, c. 1785
- Maker / attribution
- John Breakenrig (maker)
- Date
- c. 1785
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- Scotland
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany, satinwood
- Dimensions
- Height 7 ft 6 in (229 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 591
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 591)
- Catalogue title (original)
- An excellent Edinburgh longcase clock by John Breakenrig (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 591), this is a longcase clock by John Breakenrig, made in Scotland, 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: mahogany, satinwood. Recorded dimensions: Height 7 ft 6 in (229 cm). The record is illustrated with 3 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
A fine Edinburgh longcase clock by these well known and prolific clockmakers. Featuring an eight day duration movement and striking the hours on a bell. The silver brass dial is engraved with flowers, foliage, and two birds to the centre. Also featuring seconds, date and blue steel hands. The arch of the dial engraved with the makers name John Breakenrig of Edinburgh. The extremely elegant flame mahogany veneered case has a long trunk door with reeded quarter pillars to each corner, and the plain base stands on four bracket feet. Both the base and trunk door are also inlaid with boxwood stringing and cross banded mahogany. The hood is finished with a swan neck top with typically Scottish satinwood frets, brass patera and a brass spire finial. The dial can be accessed via a glazed door which is framed via separate reeded pillars and brass Doric capitals. NOTE: This clock has just arrived and will require some sympathetic restoration before delivery. The movement will require a service and overhaul and the dial could have its silvering freshened up if desired. The cabinetwork will also require some minimal restoration.
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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