Clocks · Longcase clock
Longcase clock by Barrauds, Cornhill, London, c. 1820
- Maker / attribution
- Barrauds (maker)
- Date
- c. 1820
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- Cornhill, London
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany, ebony
- Dimensions
- Height 6 ft 4 in (193 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 442
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 442)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Barrauds - No: 1101 Cornhill, London (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 442), this is a longcase clock by Barrauds, made in Cornhill, 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, ebony. Recorded dimensions: Height 6 ft 4 in (193 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 exceptionally small & rare Domestic Regulator by this famous Clockmaking family. The substantial 8 day duration 5 pillar movement with thick shaped plates, a beautifully made deadbeat escapement, Harrison Maintaining power and a large wood rod pendulum with a heavy lead bob faced with brass on both sides and an engraved regulation nut. Also striking the hours on a bell and the backplate engraved with the makers name. A very rare feature on a longcase clock. The painted round 11" dial with Roman numerals, blued steel hand to the seconds, brass minute and hour hands of typical Barrauds design and the makers name and place of work to the centre of the dial. The exquisitely proportioned mahogany case with exceptional flame veneer and ebony mouldings throughout the front elevation, canted corners to the trunk and finishing with a double plinth to the base. The hood with brass lined and ebony inlaid inset panels surrounding the dial and canted corners. Also with sound frets to the side and terminating in a chamfer top. Note: The Barrauds family were prolific Clock & Watchmakers, particularly specialising in Chronometers. Paul Philip Barraud was Master of the Clockmakers Company in 1810 & 1811. He partnered Howells & Jamison in the late 18th century to make Mudges Timekeepers. Paul died in 1820 but his sons, having been apprenticed to their Father, continued to run the business and it later became known as Barraud & Lunds.Â
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.
Related records
Pocket Watches · 1830 (hallmarked London)
Early 19th century silver fusee lever pocket watch by Barrauds, London, hallmarked London 1830
Gardiner Houlgate (auction house), Corsham
Pocket Watches · 1833 (hallmarked London)
William IV 18ct duplex slim pocket watch by Barrauds, London, hallmarked London 1833
Gardiner Houlgate (auction house), Corsham
Clocks · c. 1820
Longcase clock by Barrauds, Cornhill, London, c. 1820
P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire
Clocks · c. 1825
Rosewood bracket clock by Barrauds, Cornhill, London, c. 1825
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