Clocks · Longcase clock
London mahogany longcase clock by Samuel Fish, London
- Maker / attribution
- Samuel Fish (maker)
- Date
- c. 1770
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany
- Dimensions
- Height 267 cm
- Stock no.
- Product 2716
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, The Antique Clock Company (product 2716)
- Catalogue title (original)
- FINE LONDON MAHOGANY LONGCASE CLOCK – SAMUEL FISH – LONDON (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by The Antique Clock Company (dealer), Dorset (stock number Product 2716), this is a longcase clock by Samuel Fish, made in London, England, dated c. 1770. 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 267 cm. The record is illustrated with 3 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 — The Antique Clock Company
An elegant and attractive London pagoda top longcase clock. The fine quality mahogany case has well chosen flame veneers to the trunk door and to the base panel, both surmounted by strong mahogany mouldings. The trunk has canted corners with brass inlaid and capped reeded columns with a double footed plinth. There are three brass finials to the sides and centre. The pagoda hood has brass reeded and capped columns at the front and brass capped columns at the rear with a glass aperture at the side for viewing the movement. The brass dial has nicely cast spandrels and well matted centre with a date aperture above 6 o’clock, a signature plaque signed “Samuel Fish, London” and a recessed seconds dial. Above 12 o’clock there is a strike/silent subsidiary dial. There are again well cast spandrels to the sides of the arch. The eight day five knopped pillar movement is of fine quality with nicely shaped steel work. It strikes the hours on a large bell mounted above the movement. The clock has a brass pendulum bob and two brass cased weights, although one of them has lost most of its brass casting. Height: 105″ or 267cm
Provenance
Private collection – U.K.
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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