Clocks · Longcase clock
Marquetry longcase clock by Richard Baker, London
- Maker / attribution
- Richard Baker (maker)
- Date
- c. 1690
- Historical period
- Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- marquetry
- Dimensions
- Height 202 cm
- Stock no.
- Product 2238
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, The Antique Clock Company (product 2238)
- Catalogue title (original)
- A VERY FINE MARQUETRY LONGCASE CLOCK – RICHARD BAKER – LONDON (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by The Antique Clock Company (dealer), Dorset (stock number Product 2238), this is a longcase clock by Richard Baker, made in London, England, dated c. 1690. 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 202 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
Dealer description — The Antique Clock Company
A very fine quality marquetry 8-day longcase clock by the renowned Richard Baker of London, which dates from the late 17th Century. A good quality 10 ¼” square brass dial with count wheel striking movement (on the outside of the back plate) and 5 knopped pillars with anchor escapement. The walnut veneer case features bird and flower marquetry of the highest quality, with excellent colour and patination, barley twist columns to the hood and lenticle to the trunk door. The dial with finely matted centre, an English Rose engraving to the very centre and date aperture below, seconds subsidiary dial below XII and the makers name “ Richard Baker Londini ” engraved below the silvered chapter ring. A highly attractive and outstanding piece from the golden age of clock making. Richard Baker: Apprenticed through the Blacksmiths` Company to John Chatfield before changing to Richard Browne in 1683. He gained his Freedom of the Clockmakers` Company by redemption by order of the Lord Mayor in 1685. He is described as a `Great Clockmaker` and took on many apprentices including Peter Garon in 1687. He was in fact fined by the Clockmaker’s Company for having too many apprentices. Comparative Literature: Brian Loomes – The Early Clockmakers of Great Britain Height: 79 ½” or 202cm
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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