Clocks · Longcase clock
Georgian longcase clock by Newman, Camberwell, London, c. 1795
- Maker / attribution
- Newman (maker)
- Date
- c. 1795
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- Camberwell, London
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany
- Dimensions
- Height 7 ft 2 in (218 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 444
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 444)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Georgian Longcase Clock by Newman of Camberwell, London (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 444), this is a longcase clock by Newman, made in Camberwell, London, England, dated c. 1795. 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 7 ft 2 in (218 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 example of London Clockmaking with highly figured mahogany cabinetwork. The five pillar 8 day duration movement with anchor escapement and striking the hours on a bell. The dial is of the later silvered brass design featuring Roman numerals, Arabic minutes, seconds, date, matching blued steel hands and a strike/silent facility to the arch. Also elaborately engraved with flowers, swags, foliage and the makers name and place of work. The elegant mahogany cabinet with a shaped double plinth and well chosen flame veneered mahogany to the trunk door and base. The trunk also with reeded canted corners with brass inlay and the hood with separate brass capped and brass inlaid pillars below a broken arch top with finely cut sound frets to the sides. Note: There is a Robert Newman listed as working from the late 18th century in Clerkenwell, this is quite possibly the same man. Maker Newman of Camberwell of London
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:Deadbeat escapementAnchor escapement
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