Clocks · Tavern clock
English tavern clock, c. 1730
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- c. 1730
- Historical period
- Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Tavern clock
- Dimensions
- Height 156 cm
- Stock no.
- SKU 413
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Howard Walwyn (SKU 413)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Early Shield Dial Chinoiserie Tavern Clock (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Howard Walwyn Fine Antique Clocks (dealer), London (stock number SKU 413), this is a tavern clock, dated c. 1730. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Clocks collection. Recorded dimensions: Height 156 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 — Howard Walwyn
A very rare, early shield dial Tavern Timepiece in a wonderfully untouched state. The exceptional case retains virtually all its black and gilt lacquer Chinoiserie decoration. It is decorated onto pine, as one would expect on a piece of George II lacquer furniture at the end of the early period. The case also has a number of very unusual features: the non-opening dummy trunk door and bombé shaped base with a sliding panel and raised gilt lenticle, the offset winding arbor and the long sliding viewing panels for the movement on each side. The sides of the case are decorated with the more usual gilt sprays of chrysanthemums. The flat wooden 3 piece dial has a raised flat edge moulding with very unusual and charming floral and foliate decoration. The chapter ring is very well laid out with Roman hours and outside Arabic five minute marks. The restored brass hour hand is elaborately pierced and wrought and the long slender minute hand has a crescent shaped counterpoise. The early long plated movement has four finned pillars and offset wind. The long pendulum has a brass bob which is visible through the lenticle as it swings from side to side. Height : 61 ½ in (156 cm) Dial width : 25 in (63.5 cm) Depth : 5 ¾ in (14.5 cm) * This early shield dial tavern clock with its unusual elongated form and sliding ogee shaped lenticle panel is only the second such clock we have handled in over 35 years. HW5641
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.
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