Clocks · Longcase clock
Longcase clock by Thomason Fitter, London, c. 1760–1780
- Maker / attribution
- Thomason Fitter (maker)
- Date
- c. 1760–1780
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- lacquer
- Dimensions
- Height 250 cm
- Stock no.
- Product 4474
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Howard Walwyn (product 4474)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Thomason Fitter. An impressive George III period hour-striking red lacquer longcase clock. (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Howard Walwyn Fine Antique Clocks (dealer), London (stock number Product 4474), this is a longcase clock by Thomason Fitter, made in London, England, dated c. 1760–1780. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: lacquer. Recorded dimensions: Height 250 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 — Howard Walwyn
An impressive George III period brass dial hour-striking red and gilt chinoiserie lacquer longcase clock by this London maker. The case is finished in well-preserved red lacquer, extensively embellished with gilt foliate scrolls, diaper borders and line-work throughout. The hood has a pagoda top incorporating a wooden carved gilt fret, flanked by two wooden gilt ball finials, and fronted by a glazed door with columns on either side, with gilt top capitals and bases. The arched trunk door is decorated with two painted panels, the upper portraying a scene of a fortune teller and pickpocket and the lower a classical pastoral scene with livestock and a seated shepherd in the foreground. The base is further enriched with a larger painted chinoiserie-style scene featuring architecture and figures within a landscape. The break-arch dial has a raised silvered brass chapter ring engraved with Roman hours and an outer minute track with Arabic five-minute markers. The finely matted centre features a subsidiary seconds dial below XII and a calendar aperture above VI, while the arch contains the strike/silent lever. The maker’s signature Tho:son Fitter, London , is engraved on a raised silvered cartouche to the lower centre. The clock retains its finely pierced steel hands. The substantial 8-day movement has an anchor escapement which is regulated by a long steel rod pendulum with brass lenticular shaped bob, powered by two brass dome topped weights. It has five knopped pillars and strikes the hours on a bell. Height : 98 ½ in (250 cm) Width : 20 ⅞ in (53 cm) Depth : 9 ⅛ in (23 cm) *Thomason Fitter is recorded as working in London in the third quarter of the 18th century and is listed on page 269 in Loomes’ Watchmakers and Clockmakers of the World . HW6410
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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