Clocks · Longcase clock
Longcase clock by Tompion, England, c. 1710
- Maker / attribution
- Tompion (maker)
- Date
- c. 1710
- Historical period
- Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- Oak carcase with walnut veneer; brass and gilt dial with movement of brass and other metals
- Dimensions
- Height: 217 cm; Width: 48.1 cm; Depth: 26.6 cm; Weight: 5.5 kg (w.3:6 10/10/2025 NH); Weight: 5.2 kg (w.3:5 10/10/2025 NH)
- Holding institution
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- Accession / object no.
- W.3:1-1964
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by Victoria and Albert Museum, London (object number W.3:1-1964), this is a longcase clock by Tompion, made in London, England, dated c. 1710. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Oak carcase with walnut veneer; brass and gilt dial with movement of brass and other metals. Recorded dimensions: Height: 217 cm; Width: 48.1 cm; Depth: 26.6 cm; Weight: 5.5 kg (w.3:6 10/10/2025 NH); Weight: 5.2 kg (w.3:5 10/10/2025 NH). The record is illustrated with 2 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
Physical description — Victoria and Albert Museum
Longcase clock with an oak and walnut case. The trunk is veneered in walnut, and the base has been renewed, with oak panels within walnut cross-banded borders. The rectangular trunk door is edged with moulding; the door Convex moulding below hood. Slightly warped. The hood has three-quarter columns on each side of the front, with one quarter columns on the sides. There are fretted panels above the hood door and in the sides of the hood.
Brief description — Victoria and Albert Museum
Trunk, from longcase clock, English, c. 1710. 64/1623 Thomas Tompion
Historical context
Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
Huygens' pendulum and balance spring transform accuracy; English makers develop the anchor and deadbeat escapements.
Huygens's pendulum (1656–57) improved clock accuracy from about a quarter of an hour to under a minute a day. The anchor escapement (c. 1670) and the long seconds pendulum created the longcase clock; London makers such as Fromanteel, Knibb, Tompion and Quare led European clockmaking, and French makers created the Boulle pendule.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Renaissance 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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