Clocks · Longcase clock
Longcase clock by James Tregent, c. 1795
- Maker / attribution
- James Tregent (maker)
- Date
- c. 1795
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- Wales
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany
- Dimensions
- Height 6 ft 11 in (211 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 603
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 603)
- Catalogue title (original)
- James Tregent, Watchmaker to the Prince of Wales (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 603), this is a longcase clock by James Tregent, made in Wales, 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 6 ft 11 in (211 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 fine London longcase clock by this noted maker. The movement is of 8 day duration, featuring 5 plate pillars and strikes the hour on a single bell. The bell can also be silenced as required. The silvered brass dial displays seconds, date Roman and Arabic numerals. The time is displayed via matching blued steel hands. The elegant case design was used by several Clockmakers at this period but most notably by John Holmes. There are also similarities to the case as used by Mudge and Dutton. The case features some excellently chosen flame mahogany veneers, brass inlaid canted corners to the hood and a broken arch top. The base has a raised panel and a shaped double plinth. There are also original wooden sound frets to each side of the hood. A very desirable longcase clock. NOTE: Having only just arrived this clock will require some sympathetic restoration to the case and the the movement will be serviced and guaranteed for 3 years. MORE PHOTOGRAPHS TO FOLLOW
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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