Clocks · Longcase clock
Quarter striking grandfather clock by Robert Best, St Pauls, London, c. 1800
- Maker / attribution
- Robert Best (maker)
- Date
- c. 1800
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- St Pauls, London
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany
- Dimensions
- Height 7 ft 2 in (218 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 181
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 181)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Quarter Striking Antique Grandfather Clock by Robert Best of St Pauls, London (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 181), this is a longcase clock by Robert Best, made in St Pauls, London, England, dated c. 1800. 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 2 in (218 cm). The record is illustrated with 6 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 and very rare round dial mahogany longcase clock with quarter striking movement. The substantial 8 day duration movement with anchor escapement and striking the hours on a bell. The quarters struck on a further 8 bells. The 12" round painted dial with Roman numerals, seconds, strike/silent lever above number XII and blued steel hands. The substantial pendulum with a large brass bob and silvered brass rating nut. The mahogany case of excellent proportions and size with high quality flame veneers to the trunk door and base. Both the trunk and hood door flanked by reeded brass canted corners. The broken arch top hood with a brass glazed bezel, brass fish scale frets to both the front and sides and highly intricate cresting to the top surmounted with three brass ball finials. Note: Robert Best of St Pauls, London was a Member of the Clockmakers Company from 1783 - 1825. In 1828 he was working in Little Knightrider Street, London.
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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