Clocks · Longcase clock
Grandfather Clock by Rob. Johnson Woolton, c. 1760
- Maker / attribution
- Rob. Johnson Woolton (maker)
- Date
- c. 1760
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Stock no.
- 23
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Pendulum of Mayfair (23)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Antique Grandfather Clock by Rob. Johnson Woolton C.1760 (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Pendulum of Mayfair (dealer), London (stock number 23), this is a longcase clock by Rob. Johnson Woolton, dated c. 1760. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. 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 — Pendulum of Mayfair
A good quality ‘8-day’ mahogany Longcase clock. Featuring an arch brass dial by Robert Johnson Woolton. The break arch top cabinet showing superb elegant design. Also with choice mahogany veneers. Including fantastic fretwork to the hood and the cabinet. Also standing on shaped bracket feet. The base with chamfered sides and raised shaped cross-banded panel. The long trunk door also with fine cross-banding. Lovely shaped top to the door. Quarter columns with wood capital to the trunk. The dial with maker’s name in a boss to the arch, and the dial centre finely matted. Also with subsidiary seconds and calendar, chapter ring and ‘dolphin head spandrels’ to the arch. Fine shaped blued iron hands. The fine quality brass movement striking the hours on a single bell. Woolton is a prestigious middle class superb of Liverpool. Many Beatles landmarks can be found in Woolton, including ‘Mendips’ (Lennon’s childhood home at 251 Menlove Avenue) and Strawberry Field. Another one of Woolton’s claims to fame is that John Lennon and Paul McCartney first met at St. Peter’s garden fete on 6 July 1957. Antique Grandfather Clocks
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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