Clocks · Longcase clock
London longcase clock by Charles Absolon, c. 1795
- Maker / attribution
- Charles Absolon (maker)
- Date
- c. 1795
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany
- Dimensions
- Height 7 ft 6 in (229 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 214
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 214)
- Catalogue title (original)
- London Longcase Clock by Charles Absolon (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 214), this is a longcase clock by Charles Absolon, made in 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 6 in (229 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
An excellent London Longcase Clock by this inventive maker. The 8 day duration 5 pillar movement striking the hours on a bell with unusual pin striking mechanism. The silvered brass round 13" dial with Roman numerals and Arabic minutes. The dial also with seconds and finely made and unusual blued steel hands. The substantial and well proportioned mahogany case with typical long trunk door veneered with flame mahogany 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 bezel with a convex glass. The sides of the hood with round apertures displaying original sound frets fronted with glass. The very top of the hood with a small pagoda surmounted with a brass ball finial. Note: Charles Absolon appears to have made some very unusual clocks during the last part of the 18th century and on into the 19th century. He is known to have worked in Crispin Street & Bishopsgate Street. Maker Charles Absolon
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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