Clocks · Longcase clock
Mahogany 8-day longcase clock
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- c. 1790
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany
- Dimensions
- Height 230 cm
- Stock no.
- Product 2976
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, The Antique Clock Company (product 2976)
- Catalogue title (original)
- A FINE MAHOGANY 8-DAY LONGCASE CLOCK BY MATTHEW AND THOMAS DUTTON NO.239 (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by The Antique Clock Company (dealer), Dorset (stock number Product 2976), this is a longcase clock, dated c. 1790. 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 230 cm. The record is illustrated with 3 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 — The Antique Clock Company
A beautiful mahogany break arch case with fine mouldings and a moulded hood door flanked by fluted, reeded and canted corners. Surmounted by a four sided concave pedestal with a brass ball and flame finial. The break arch trunk door with flame veneers matches the raised panel to the base with a double plinth. 12-inch break arch brass dial with subsidiary calendar dial to the arch flanked by pierced foliate spandrels. Silvered chapter dial with large seconds dial signed “Mattw. & Thos. Dutton, London”. It also features the original blued steel hands and is numbered 239. The substantial 8-day movement with thick plates, five baluster pillars, anchor escapement and large backcock for the iron-rod pendulum with T-bar suspension and heavy lenticular brass-faced bob. Striking the hours on bell. Matthew & Thomas Dutton were the sons of William Dutton, who was a business partner with Thomas Mudge c.1765. Together, they utilised the skills attained in the Tompion and Graham era. The wealthiest members of the aristocracy patronised them as it was generally acknowledged that their designs, with the quality of their work and elegant cases. Matthew & Thomas Dutton continued the family tradition, working from No.148 Fleet Street. Height: 90 ½″ or 230 cm (Including finial)
Provenance
Private collection – U.K.
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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