Clocks · Longcase clock
Mahogany longcase clock by Lee, High Wycombe, c. 1795
- Maker / attribution
- Lee (maker)
- Date
- c. 1795
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- High Wycombe
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany
- Dimensions
- Height 7 ft 7.5 in (232 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 72
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 72)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Elegant Mahogany Longcase Clock by Lee of High Wycombe (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 72), this is a longcase clock by Lee, made in High Wycombe, England, dated c. 1795. 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 7 ft 7.5 in (232 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 — P A Oxley
An excellent mahogany longcase clock with elegant London features. The 8 day duration 5 pillar movement striking the hours on a bell and with a 12" arched silvered brass dial with Roman chapter ring with Arabic minutes, signed by the maker to the arch, seconds and date rings and matching blued steel hands of diamond pattern. The well figured flame veneered mahogany case with a long trunk door, flanked by reeded quarter columns and solid mahogany capitals. The raised panelled base with double plinth and also with highly figured mahogany veneers. The hood with reeded pillars and solid mahogany capitals and a broken arch top with cresting and three fluted brass finials. Note: John Lee set up his business in High Wycombe in the late 18th century after originally coming from Islington, London. The business was taken over by Thomas Strange in 1825. There are some unusual features on the case of this clock which indicate it may have indeed been made in High Wycombe. This was a well known centre for furniture making in the 18th and 19th centuries, particularly chair making. Maker Lee of High Wycombe
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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