Clocks · Longcase clock
London longcase clock by William Allam, c. 1760
- Maker / attribution
- William Allam (maker)
- Date
- c. 1760
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany
- Dimensions
- Height 7 ft 3 in (221 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 478
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 478)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Fine London Longcase Clock by William Allam (English)
View the source record (dealer listing) ↗ (opens another website in a new tab)Suggest a correction
Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 478), this is a longcase clock by William Allam, made in England, dated c. 1760. 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 3 in (221 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 elegant example of London Clockmaking by this well known and celebrated maker. The high quality and substantial 8 day duration 5 pillar movement with the hours striking on a bell and featuring a double back cock as used by Mudge & Dutton. Also with a Regulator type pinned crutch. The 12" arched brass dial has a separate silvered brass chapter ring, a fine matted centre, a subsidiary sunken seconds ring, a square date aperture and a strike/silent facility above to the arch. The dial also displays finely made blued steel hands and the very rare feature of double screwed spandrels to the corners and arch as used by Tompion & Graham. Incidentally these exact Spandrels were used very regularly by Mudge & Dutton. The elegant case of excellent proportions features high quality flame mahogany veneer to both the trunk door and base. The latter with a raised rectangular panel and a shaped double plinth standing on two mahogany pads. The hood has typical brass inlaid reeded pillars with brass Doric capitals, quarter pillars to the rear, inspection windows to the side and a plain broken arched top. Note: William Allam appears to have had some influences from other notable makers during the 18th century such as Graham, Mudge, Dutton & Holmes. The hands and spandrels are typical of work by Mudge & Dutton with the double screwed feature being used originally by the famous Clockmaker Thomas Tompion. Although a prolific maker of bracket clocks and watches, very few Longcase clocks are recorded by William Allam. Many of his clocks and watches are on display in Museums around the world. William Allam was Free of the Clockmakers Company in 1743 and worked in Fleet Street. Working alone at the beginning of his career he then joined in partnership with Clements in 1763 and worked until 1795. Maker William Allam
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
Related records
Clocks · c. 1770
Lantern clock by William Allam, London, c. 1770
Howard Walwyn Fine Antique Clocks (dealer), London
Clocks · c. 1750
Clock by William Allam, London, c. 1750
Howard Walwyn Fine Antique Clocks (dealer), London
Clocks · c. 1760
London longcase clock by William Allam, c. 1760
P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire
Clocks · 1740–1760
Longcase clock, English, 1740–1760, japanned wood, John Ellicott
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Clocks · c.1750
Long-case clock, English, ca. 1750, by Richard Peyton of Gloucester
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Clocks · 1751
Large wheel engine, signed and dated "John Tipping, Whildon Green, 1751".
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · 1755
Bracket clock by John Fordham, England, 1755
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Clocks · c. 1760
Longcase clock by James Cox, England, c. 1760
Victoria and Albert Museum, London