Clocks · Longcase clock
London longcase clock by Bateman, Great Tower Street, c. 1800
- Maker / attribution
- Bateman (maker)
- Date
- c. 1800
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- Great Tower Street
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany
- Dimensions
- Height 6 ft 11 in (211 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 408
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 408)
- Catalogue title (original)
- London Longcase Clock by Bateman of Great Tower Street (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 408), this is a longcase clock by Bateman, made in Great Tower Street, England, dated c. 1800. 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 6 ft 11 in (211 cm). 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 — P A Oxley
A fine London Longcase Clock of good proportions and colour. The 8 day duration 5 pillar movement striking the hours on a bell and with a painted round 12" dial with Roman numerals, seconds, matching blued steel hands and the makers name and place of work to the centre of the dial. The movement also with original brass cased weights and an engraved rating nut to the pendulum bob. The well proportioned mahogany case with typical long trunk door veneered with highly figured flame mahogany veneer and a raised panelled base with double plinth. The trunk also with reeded quarter pillars inlaid with brass and capped with brass Doric capitals. The hood with brass inlaid reeded canted corners and a brass concave bezel with a convex glass. The sides of the hood with rectangular inspection windows . Note: Andrew Bateman was Apprenticed in 1776 and made Livery of the Clockmakers Company in 1812. He died in 1816. Maker Bateman of Great Tower Street
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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