Clocks · Longcase clock
Longcase clock by Curtis, Exeter, c. 1810
- Maker / attribution
- Curtis (maker)
- Date
- c. 1810
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- Exeter
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany, ebony
- Dimensions
- Height 6 ft 6 in (198 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 262
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 262)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Longcase Clock by Curtis of Exeter (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 262), this is a longcase clock by Curtis, made in Exeter, England, dated c. 1810. 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 6 in (198 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 — P A Oxley
A good Devonshire Longcase Clock of small size. The 8 day duration movement striking the hours on a bell and with a brass bobbed pendulum and cast iron weights. The painted dial with Arabic chapters, seconds and date. Also featuring matching brass hands, painted corners with flowers, foliage and seashells and the makers name and town to the centre of the dial. The mahogany case with extensive boxwood and ebony line inlay throughout and later Edwardian inlay to the long trunk door and base. The plain base with a shaped plinth. The flat top hood with plain mahogany pillars featuring gilt wooden capitals and a glazed hood door. Note: William Curtis was a Clockmaker, Watchmaker & Silversmith who worked in New Bridge Street, Exeter from around 1790. He was listed as being a Parish Constable in 1803. He died aged 88 on 21st March 1847. Maker Curtis of Exeter
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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