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 224
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 224)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Antique London Longcase Clock by William Allam (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 224), 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 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 — P A Oxley
An important and desirable antique mahogany Longcase Clock with Vulliamy style features. The high quality 8 day duration 5 pillar movement striking the hours on a bell. The 12" square brass dial with separate silvered brass chapter ring, matted centre, subsidiary sunken seconds ring, square date aperture and strike/silent facility above XII. The dial also with exquisitely made blued steel hands and the very rare feature of double screwed spandrels as used by Tompion & Graham. The substantial case featuring the highest quality flame mahogany veneer to the wide trunk door. The base also with a flame veneered raised rectangular panel and a plain double plinth standing on four robust mahogany pads. The hood with brass inlaid reeded pillars with brass Doric capitals, quarter pillars to the rear and a Vulliamy style architectural top. Note: William Allam appears to have had some influence from the more well known clockmakers during the 18th century such as Mudge & Dutton and also Vulliamy. The hands and spandrels are typical of clockmakers Mudge & Dutton. The use of a square dial at this late period is also a style used by the famous Clockmaker Vulliamy. This very fine antique clock also features two original brass covered weights, one larger than the other and a heavy pendulum bob with calibrated rating nut. William Allam was Free of the Clockmakers Company in 1743. 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
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