Clocks · Longcase clock
Longcase clock, Bristol/london, c. 1820
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- c. 1820
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- Bristol/london
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany
- Dimensions
- Height 185.5 cm
- Stock no.
- SKU 71
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Howard Walwyn (SKU 71)
- Catalogue title (original)
- J. H. ALLIS. AN EXCEPTIONAL REGENCY PERIOD MAHOGANY LONGCASE REGULATOR. (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Howard Walwyn Fine Antique Clocks (dealer), London (stock number SKU 71), this is a longcase clock, made in Bristol/london, England, dated c. 1820. 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 185.5 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 — Howard Walwyn
An exceptional Regency longcase regulator encapsulating all the features associated with the finest precision timekeepers. Standing only 73 inches (185.5 cm) high, the case is veneered with the best richly figured mahogany , which has now achieved an excellent colour and good patination. Standing on a single plinth, the moulded panelled base rises to a glazed door with a pull forward chamfer top hood above. The back board is similarly veneered. The 12 inch (30 cm) diameter silvered and engraved brass dial is laid out in the traditional regulator style with an outer minutes ring, large seconds ring and hours chapter dial beneath. The 8-day duration movement is of the highest quality with substantial plates separated by six large turned pillars. The movement includes: Jewelled deadbeat escapement Maintaining power High count pinions End stops Four brass brackets securing the movement to the seatboard. Beat adjustment The large back cock from which the mercury pendulum hangs is attached to the 1 ½ inch thick backboard. The pendulum with double roller suspension is constructed of steel. The pendulum swings above a silvered engraved beat plate mounted on a mahogany block. The movement is driven by a small rectangular brass cased weight of only 4lbs (almost 2kg) suspended from an offset pulley which is concealed to give a neater appearance. The whole movement is enclosed within a mahogany dust box. Height: 73 in (185.5 cm) * Allis, whose name is engraved to the dial, is not the maker of this regulator. Most probably he was a high class retailer working in Bristol who commissioned the clock from one of the best London makers for use in his own retail outlet. Sn4266 Signed / Inscribed J. H. ALLIS, BRISTOL.
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.
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