Clocks · Longcase clock
Longcase clock by Charles Gretton, London, c. 1685
- Maker / attribution
- Charles Gretton (maker)
- Date
- c. 1685
- Historical period
- Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- marquetry
- Dimensions
- Height 193 cm
- Stock no.
- SKU 540
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Howard Walwyn (SKU 540)
- Catalogue title (original)
- CHARLES GRETTON. A good Charles II period flower and bird marquetry longcase clock. (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Howard Walwyn Fine Antique Clocks (dealer), London (stock number SKU 540), this is a longcase clock by Charles Gretton, made in London, England, dated c. 1685. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: marquetry. Recorded dimensions: Height 193 cm. The record is illustrated with 4 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
A good Charles II period flower and bird marquetry longcase clock by one of the most eminent makers of the late 17 th century. The case is constructed primarily of oak and veneered with olivewood oysters with ebonised mouldings and inset panels of marquetry to the trunk and base. Standing on bun feet there is a lenticle to the trunk door and the now front-opening hood is flanked by barley twist columns with a sound fret above. The 10-inch square brass dial is mounted with a silvered chapter ring, seconds ring and cherub and foliage spandrels. The centre is finely matted and had an aperture to view the day of the month. The dial is signed beneath VI by the maker, Charles Gretton, London. The high-quality, 8-day duration movement includes bolt-and-shutter maintaining power and hour strike via an outside countwheel. The clock is complete with its original brass cased weights and pendulum. Date: circa 1685 Height : 78 in (193 cm) * Charles Gretton was born in 1649 and was free of the Clockmakers’ Company in 1672. After serving his apprenticeship with Humfrey Downing he established his business in Fleet Street at ‘The Ship’. In 1700 he was appointed Master of the Clockmakers’ Company. HW6390
Historical context
Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
Huygens' pendulum and balance spring transform accuracy; English makers develop the anchor and deadbeat escapements.
Huygens's pendulum (1656–57) improved clock accuracy from about a quarter of an hour to under a minute a day. The anchor escapement (c. 1670) and the long seconds pendulum created the longcase clock; London makers such as Fromanteel, Knibb, Tompion and Quare led European clockmaking, and French makers created the Boulle pendule.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Renaissance 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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