Clocks · Clock
Edward Upjohn, c. 1745–1750
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- c. 1745–1750
- Historical period
- Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Place
- Exon
- Object type
- Clock
- Dimensions
- Height 41 cm
- Stock no.
- SKU 20
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Howard Walwyn (SKU 20)
- Catalogue title (original)
- EDWARD UPJOHN (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Howard Walwyn Fine Antique Clocks (dealer), London (stock number SKU 20), this is a clock, made in Exon, dated c. 1745–1750. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Clocks collection. Recorded dimensions: Height 41 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 — Howard Walwyn
A rare walnut George II period brass dial timepiece by this well-known Exeter maker. The 8-day movement has a fully restored verge escapement and hour and pull quarter repeatwork on two bells. The six inch arched brass dial has a raised chapter ring, male head and foliate corner spandrels, inset datework above VI and the maker’s signature on a disc within the arch. The unusual inverted belltop case is veneered onto an oak carcase in well patinated walnut of a beautiful mellow colour and it retains its fine cross grain mouldings The backplate is exquisitely engraved with scrolling foliage and in the centre there is a musician in 18th century dress holding a musical scroll. Height: 16 in (41 cm) * Edward Upjohn is listed on page 789 of Loomes’ ‘Clockmakers of the World: 21st Century Edition’. He was a member of one of Exeter’s most famous clockmaking families whose descendents worked both in Exeter and London during most of the 18th century and into the early 1800s. Edward Upjohn began life as a stonemason in Shaftesbury or Shaston as it was known in the 1700s. He moved to America with his wife in 1723, firstly Philadelphia and then Charleston. However, due to ill health in 1726 they returned to Topsham in Devon where they remained until 1738. The family then settled in Exeter where Edward had a workshop until his death in 1764. Signed / Inscribed Edward Upjohn, EXON
Historical context
Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
Huygens' pendulum and balance spring transform accuracy; English makers develop the anchor and deadbeat escapements.
Huygens's pendulum (1656–57) improved clock accuracy from about a quarter of an hour to under a minute a day. The anchor escapement (c. 1670) and the long seconds pendulum created the longcase clock; London makers such as Fromanteel, Knibb, Tompion and Quare led European clockmaking, and French makers created the Boulle pendule.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Renaissance Horology
Atlas type guide
Domestic clocks
A clock combines four systems: a source of power (falling weight, coiled spring, or later electricity), a gear train that divides time, an escapement and oscillator that regulate it (foliot, pendulum or balance), and an indicating system of dial and hands or a bell. Its history runs from the large iron weight-driven clocks of the late thirteenth century to Renaissance spring-driven table clocks, the pendulum revolution of 1656, the factory clocks of the nineteenth century and electric and quartz clocks of the twentieth.
Domestic clocks also reflect regional furniture and decorative traditions — English longcase and bracket clocks, French pendules, Viennese regulators, Black Forest and American shelf clocks — and therefore record changing tastes as much as technical progress.
What to look for
- How the clock is powered: weights, spring barrel, fusee, electric coil.
- The oscillator: foliot, short pendulum, long seconds pendulum or balance.
- Whether it strikes: hour only (count wheel) or hours and quarters (rack striking).
- The maker or retailer's name on dial and movement, and any factory trademarks.
- Signs of alteration — replaced dials, converted escapements, 'married' cases.
Dating clues
- Before 1656 clocks used foliots or balances; after, most domestic clocks have pendulums.
- Anchor escapements spread after c. 1670; minute hands became common at the same time.
- Factory production in America and Germany transformed prices after c. 1840.
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) escapementFoliot
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