Clocks · Longcase clock
Grandfather Clock by Robert Wood, London, c. 1790
- Maker / attribution
- Robert Wood (maker)
- Date
- c. 1790
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Stock no.
- 1223
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Pendulum of Mayfair (1223)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Antique Grandfather Clock by Robert Wood – London C1790 (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Pendulum of Mayfair (dealer), London (stock number 1223), this is a longcase clock by Robert Wood, made in London, England, dated c. 1790. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. The record is illustrated with 5 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 lovely example of a London mahogany ‘8-day’ longcase clock from the late 18th century. The arched silvered dial signed by Robert Wood London. The dial with lovely quality engraving to the corners of the dial and arch. Subsidiary seconds and calendar to the dial centre, and a moon-phase to the arch. The cabinet of only the finest choice mahogany veneers and showing all the typical but special high quality London case features. Quarter reeded and brass strung columns with brass capitals, moulding to the trunk door and base panel, reeded and brass strung hood columns. The clock standing on two plinths and the lower one shaped. The hood with lovely pagoda top with fretwork. The high quality 5 pillar movement of two train hour striking design, striking the hours on a single bell. ‘Watchmakers and clockmakers of the world’ by Brian Loomes lists Robert Wood as working in London from 10, Horseshow Alley, Moorfields. He was a maker of repute making several fine musical and automation clocks from 1789 – 1811. 89inches high.
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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