Clocks · Longcase clock
Longcase clock by T. Strange & Son, Kingston Upon Thames, c. 1810
- Maker / attribution
- T. Strange & Son (maker)
- Date
- c. 1810
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- Kingston Upon Thames
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany
- Dimensions
- Height 7 ft 3 in (221 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 417
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 417)
- Catalogue title (original)
- T. Strange & Son - Kingston Upon Thames (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 417), this is a longcase clock by T. Strange & Son, made in Kingston Upon Thames, 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. Recorded dimensions: Height 7 ft 3 in (221 cm). The record is illustrated with 5 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 unusual Mahogany longcase by this well established Clockmaking family. The 8 day duration movement striking the hours on a bell and with a 12" square painted dial with a Roman chapter ring, Arabic minutes at each quarter and subsidiary seconds and date dials. The makers name and place of work signed to the middle of the dial. Also with matching blued steel hands of typical diamond pattern. The London style case with a long trunk door veneered with excellent figured mahogany of good colour and patina. The base also with similar veneer with an applied moulding and a shaped double plinth terminating with pads. The hood with reeded pillars and brass Doric capitals, quarter pillars to the rear and an unusual domed pediment with three blocks topped with three brass ball finials. Note: Thomas Strange is listed as working in Kingston Upon Thomas from 1791 to 1824. There appears to be 3 generations working at some point in this area for at least 100 years or more.
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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