Clocks · Longcase clock
Longcase clock by William Frodsham, London, c. 1785
- Maker / attribution
- William Frodsham (maker)
- Date
- c. 1785
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany
- Dimensions
- Height 225 cm
- Stock no.
- SKU 299
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Howard Walwyn (SKU 299)
- Catalogue title (original)
- WILLIAM FRODSHAM, RED LION SQUARE, LONDON. A fine George III period 3-train mahogany longcase clock (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Howard Walwyn Fine Antique Clocks (dealer), London (stock number SKU 299), this is a longcase clock by William Frodsham, made in London, England, dated c. 1785. 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 225 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 George III period mahogany longcase clock with brass dial movement, hour strike, strike/silent and chiming on 6 bells at the quarters. The top-quality London case is veneered with figured flame mahogany and has fine patination. The pull-forward arched top hood is flanked by turned pillars with brass capitals and bases and has an inset brass sound fret below the top cornice moulding. The full-length trunk door has a moulded bridge top and quarter columns with similar brass capitals and bases. The quarter columns are repeated in the moulded panelled base. The 12-inch arched brass dial has an applied chapter ring with foliate corner spandrels. There is an aperture to view the day of the month above VI and a subsidiary seconds dial below XII. The blued steel hands are finely pierced and the maker’s signature – Wm. Frodsham Redlion Square London – is engraved on the centre of the dial. Within the arch there is a subsidiary dial for strike/silent. The 8-day movement has rack strike with the hours sounded on a bell and the quarters on six bells. As one would expect from a maker of Frodsham’s stature, the movement is of the highest quality with fine wheelwork and large plates. Height : 85 ½ in (225 cm) * William Frodsham is recorded on page 284 of Brian Loomes’s Watchmakers and Clockmakers of the World: Complete 21 st Century Edition as being in the Clockmakers Company from 1781 until his death in 1803. He was well known for his work on marine chronometers under the influence of the prototypes made by John Harrison and Thomas Earnshaw. *HW5884
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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