Clocks · Longcase clock
Oak longcase clock with Nelson dial. by Pinnell, Malmesbury, c. 1805
- Maker / attribution
- Pinnell (maker)
- Date
- c. 1805
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- Malmesbury
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- oak
- Dimensions
- Height 7 ft 3 in (221 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 255
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 255)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Oak Longcase Clock by Pinnell Of Malmesbury with Nelson dial. (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 255), this is a longcase clock by Pinnell, made in Malmesbury, England, dated c. 1805. 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 7 ft 3 in (221 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 — P A Oxley
An interesting oak longcase clock from the County of Wiltshire but with a Maritime connection. The 8 day duration movement striking the hours on a bell. The painted arch dial showing Roman numerals, Arabic minutes, seconds and date. The corners with delicately painted roses and foliage and the arch with a scene depicting the memory of Admiral Lord Nelson. Britannia stands next to Nelsons tomb and alongside her lay a cannon and a mast and sail. Also with matching blued steel hands. The slender oak case with a long trunk door with flowers to the inlaid oval. The base standing on bracket feet and also inlaid with an oval design to the centre. The hood with plain oak pillars topped with Corinthian capitals and Doric capitals to the base. The swan neck top with unusual grooved vertical lines, a central brass spire finial and brass paterea. Note: Horatio Nelson died on 21st October 1805 at the Battle of Trafalgar on the now famous ship HMS Victory. After a long and active career in the Royal Navy he died a National hero and was given a State Funeral. At this period there were all sorts of objects made to celebrate his life. Some of them not so well made and also made in huge quantities. To find a depiction of Nelson on a longcase clock is quite rare. Richard Pinnell was baptised in Malmesbury Abbey on 20th July 1779 and died only 39 years later in 1818. This clock will be sold with a model of HMS Victory and also a copy of a Trafalgar Poster issued in 1805. Maker Pinnell Of Malmesbury
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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