Clocks · Longcase clock
Longcase clock by George Stoddart, c. 1795
- Maker / attribution
- George Stoddart (maker)
- Date
- c. 1795
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- United Kingdom
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany
- Dimensions
- Height 218.5 cm
- Stock no.
- Product 4371
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Howard Walwyn (product 4371)
- Catalogue title (original)
- GEORGE STODDART. A fine classic Edinburgh mahogany longcase clock. (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Howard Walwyn Fine Antique Clocks (dealer), London (stock number Product 4371), this is a longcase clock by George Stoddart, made in United Kingdom, dated c. 1795. 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 218.5 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 fine example of a classic Edinburgh mahogany longcase clock. The case has a beautifully moulded swan neck pediment and delicately pierced boxwood frets below. The reeded hood columns have brass doric capitals and bases and this reeding is repeated to the trunk. The trunk door and the base panel are veneered with richly figured flame mahogany with crossbanding and boxwood stringing. The 12-inch break-arch silvered brass dial has Roman hour numerals, Arabic five minute markers and an outer minute track. The maker’s name George Stoddart, Edinburgh is engraved in the arch surrounded by elegant foliate engraving. There is a subsidiary seconds dial below XII and a round date aperture above VI. The clock retains its original well pierced steel hands. The substantial 8-day movement has four baluster pillars and features rack striking of the hours on a bell. It has anchor escapement and a steel pendulum rod with brass faced bob. The weights are in cast iron. Date : circa 1795 Height : 86 in (218.5 cm) Width : 18 in (45.75 cm) Depth : 9 ½ in (24 cm) * This beautifully proportioned and patinated mahogany longcase clock has all the hallmarks of the best Edinburgh clocks of the late 1700s- both in the simplicity and appeal of its movement and case. George Stoddart is listed on page 743 of Brian Loomes’ Clockmakers and Watchmakers of the World: 21 st Century Edition (NAG Press). He was working in Goosedub Edinburgh in 1793. He later moved to Buccleuch Street in 1822. His work is noted in Old Scottish Clockmakers by John Smith (Edinburgh, 1921), p. 204. HW6565
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:Deadbeat escapementAnchor escapement
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