Clocks · Longcase clock
Longcase clock, English, 1740-1760, japanned wood, John Ellicott
- Maker / attribution
- John Ellicott (maker)
- Date
- 1740-1760
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- England
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- oak
- Dimensions
- Height: 221 cm; Width: 510 cm; Depth: 25.5 cm
- Holding institution
- Victoria and Albert Museum, London
- Accession / object no.
- W.20-1946
- Credit line
- Bequeathed by Mrs Gertrude M. Winstanley
Record summary
Held and catalogued by Victoria and Albert Museum, London (object number W.20-1946), this is a longcase clock by John Ellicott, made in England, dated 1740-1760. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: oak. Recorded dimensions: Height: 221 cm; Width: 510 cm; Depth: 25.5 cm. 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
V&A — Summary
On loan to National Trust Croft Castle.
V&A — Physical description
Oak carcase japanned in gold on black. Square pedimented hood, the door flanked by engraved corner columns and the surfaces decorated with Asian diaper patterns and sprays of flowers. Brass dial, the spandrels decorated with openwork vase designs, and the base engraved: ' John Ellicott/London ; for John Ellicott (b.1706-1770) F. R. S. (1738) Sweetings Alley, Cornhill'. Above the dial there is a human visage painted in proper colour, the eyes swinging to and fro with the movement of the pendulum. On the door of the case, there is a scene on centred steps showing a lady and gentleman in European eighteenth century costume, a lady in Elizabethan costume, and three men in Chinese costume against an architectural background of classical columns, a portcullis, minarets, and other Chinese and Gothic features. Above are 'Chinese' birds perched on rocks and branches and below there are growing flowers. Round the edge of the case, a bracketed diaper border and Chinese figures. Plinth base, the front decorated with Chinese figures in an architectural landscape.
V&A — Object history
The clock lent to Croft Castle (National Trust) in 1960/61.
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.
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