Clocks · Longcase clock
Marquetry longcase clock by Peter Wise, London
- Maker / attribution
- Peter Wise (maker)
- Date
- c. 1710
- Historical period
- Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- marquetry
- Dimensions
- Height 230 cm
- Stock no.
- Product 2687
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, The Antique Clock Company (product 2687)
- Catalogue title (original)
- FINE MARQUETRY LONGCASE CLOCK – PETER WISE – LONDON (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by The Antique Clock Company (dealer), Dorset (stock number Product 2687), this is a longcase clock by Peter Wise, 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: marquetry. 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 8-day marquetry longcase clock of slim proportions, made my a master of English clockmaking during the golden age of clockmaking period. This is a very attractive clock of great quality. Dial: 11″ square brass dial with finely cast cherub head spandrels, finely matted dial centre having ringing to winding holes and to the seconds subsidiary dial centre. Decorative engraving to date aperture. Silvered, engraved chapter ring with five minute markers, Roman and Arabic numerals, signed “Peter Wise London”. Finished with some beautifully sculpted finely blued steel hands. Case: Handsomely slender, exquisitely proportioned. A Walnut, Bird & Flower marquetry case with side windows and blind fret frieze to flat topped hood, Doric hood columns, convex throat moulding, long trunk door having round brass lenticle, with the base set on plain strip plinth. Movement: The 8-day, brass bound weighted driven clock movement, held together by five knopped and finned pillars with anchor escapement and seconds pendulum. The strike train uses an internal count wheel system to know which hour to strike the bell on the hour. Peter Wise: Peter was the son of John Wise. An excellent clockmaker, he became free of the Clockmaker’s Company 1693, was Warden in 1724 and went on to become Master in 1725. To be master of the Clockmaker’s Company at this time would have been a great honour, considering the other prominent makers of the period. Height: 90 ½ ″ or 230 cm
Provenance
Private collection U.K.
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:Deadbeat escapementAnchor escapement
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