Clocks · Clock
Ralph Threlkeld, c. 1745
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- c. 1745
- Historical period
- Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Clock
- Dimensions
- Height 32.5 cm
- Stock no.
- SKU 8
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Howard Walwyn (SKU 8)
- Catalogue title (original)
- RALPH THRELKELD (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Howard Walwyn Fine Antique Clocks (dealer), London (stock number SKU 8), this is a clock, made in London, England, dated c. 1745. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Clocks collection. Recorded dimensions: Height 32.5 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 — Howard Walwyn
A fine George II period red walnut timepiece of rare small size. The inverted bell-top case is surmounted by a finely knopped brass carrying handle and it stands on four wood block feet. The mouldings to the base and top are crisp and original and there is a well-cut sound fret in the door above XII. The elegant red walnut case has exceptional colour and patination. The 5 inch square brass dial has crown and sceptre spandrels to the four corners and a silvered chapter ring with Arabic 5 minutes, Roman hour numerals and fleur de lys half-hour markers. Within the matted brass dial there is a chamfered date aperture below XII, a mock pendulum aperture and silvered alarm disc in the centre. The blued steel hands are finely wrought. The 8-day timepiece movement has a restored crown wheel verge escapement and alarm work on a single bell. The backplate and backcock and alarm pulley are beautifully engraved with foliate scrolls and flowers and the dummy pendulum is also silvered and foliate engraved. Height: 12 ¾ (32.5 cm) excluding handle Width: 8 ½ in (21.5 cm) * Ralph Threlkeld was born in 1686 in Brancepeth, Co. Durham. He was the nephew of Deodatus Threlkeld and, like his brother William, came to London but worked alone at the sign of the Oil Jar in the Strand 1728 – 1759. He was also a goldsmith. Signed / Inscribed R. Threlkeld London
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
Domestic clocks
A clock combines four systems: a source of power (falling weight, coiled spring, or later electricity), a gear train that divides time, an escapement and oscillator that regulate it (foliot, pendulum or balance), and an indicating system of dial and hands or a bell. Its history runs from the large iron weight-driven clocks of the late thirteenth century to Renaissance spring-driven table clocks, the pendulum revolution of 1656, the factory clocks of the nineteenth century and electric and quartz clocks of the twentieth.
Domestic clocks also reflect regional furniture and decorative traditions — English longcase and bracket clocks, French pendules, Viennese regulators, Black Forest and American shelf clocks — and therefore record changing tastes as much as technical progress.
What to look for
- How the clock is powered: weights, spring barrel, fusee, electric coil.
- The oscillator: foliot, short pendulum, long seconds pendulum or balance.
- Whether it strikes: hour only (count wheel) or hours and quarters (rack striking).
- The maker or retailer's name on dial and movement, and any factory trademarks.
- Signs of alteration — replaced dials, converted escapements, 'married' cases.
Dating clues
- Before 1656 clocks used foliots or balances; after, most domestic clocks have pendulums.
- Anchor escapements spread after c. 1670; minute hands became common at the same time.
- Factory production in America and Germany transformed prices after c. 1840.
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) escapementFoliot
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