Clocks · Longcase clock
Edwardian longcase clock by Maple & Co, London, c. 1900
- Maker / attribution
- Maple & Co (maker)
- Date
- c. 1900
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany, oak
- Dimensions
- Height 7 ft 5 in (226 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 82
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 82)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Unusual Edwardian longcase clock by Maple & Co of London (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 82), this is a longcase clock by Maple & Co, made in London, England, dated c. 1900. The Atlas places it in the Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking period (1900 – 1945) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: mahogany, oak. Recorded dimensions: Height 7 ft 5 in (226 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 and high quality Edwardian mahogany Regulator longcase clock with Westminster and Whittington Chime. The movement is of 8 day duration and strikes the quarter hours on eight chrome plated tubular rods hanging from the rear of the case and the main hour on a coiled gong. Also featuring Westminster and Whittington chime selection and a strike/silent mechanism. The movement is of the highest quality and has thick brass plates, deadbeat escapement and maintaining power. Its very likely that the clock movements were supplied to Maple & Co by Smiths & Sons of Clerkenwell, London. A very well known and successful Clockmaker also working during this period. The unusually painted convex dial is signed by the retailer Maple & Co, London. Also with Roman numerals and matching blued steel hands. The very substantial, high quality and mahogany case both veneered and of solid mahogany construction. The case has a long trunk door enclosing three large brass weights and a pendulum. The whole case depicts an Ionic column and capital which is carved in solid mahogany below the main dial. The base features a shaped plinth and an applied ogee moulding to the main panel. The drum shaped hood has a lockable wooden bezel encasing the dial behind a convex glass and is carved with oak leaves and acorns. A very unusual Edwardian longcase clock which would be the perfect interior design statement. This clock is currently presented in an unrestored state. The full retail price will include a full service and overhaul to the movement and the necessary sympathetic restoration to the cabinet work. Note: This clock may have originally been purchased as part of a set of furniture by the first owner or it was possibly made for a public place such as an entrance to a Town Hall. John Maple opened a small furnishing shop in the mid 19th century in Tottenham Court Road, London. By the 1880’s with the help of his son Sir John Blundell Maple the business became the largest furniture store in the world. Price includes delivery and 3 year guarantee Maker Maple & Co of London
Historical context
Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
The wristwatch displaces the pocket watch; waterproof cases, self-winding and grand complications.
Between 1900 and 1945 clocks were electrified: master-clock systems ran factories and offices, synchronous mains clocks entered homes, and the Shortt free-pendulum clock set new standards of accuracy before the first quartz clocks (1927). Art Deco design reshaped mantel and table clocks.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Industrial Revolution
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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