Clocks · Longcase clock
Regulator grandfather clock by Barrie, Edinburgh, c. 1860
- Maker / attribution
- Barrie (maker)
- Date
- c. 1860
- Historical period
- Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
- Country of origin
- Scotland
- Place
- Edinburgh
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany
- Dimensions
- Height 6 ft 8 in (203 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 172
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 172)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Regulator Antique Grandfather clock by Barrie of Edinburgh (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 172), this is a longcase clock by Barrie, made in Edinburgh, Scotland, dated c. 1860. The Atlas places it in the Industrial Revolution period (1850 – 1900) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: mahogany. Recorded dimensions: Height 6 ft 8 in (203 cm). The record is illustrated with 5 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 example of a high quality Domestic Regulator antique grandfather clock. The 8 day duration movement with dead beat escapement, Harrison maintaining power and striking the hours on a bell. The wood rod pendulum with a substantial brass bob and supported from the backboard by a cast iron bracket. The round silvered brass dial showing both seconds, date and with matching blued steel hands. The mahogany case with glazed trunk door and plain base with splayed out single plinth. The interior of the case veneered with mahogany. The hood with a typical Edinburgh architectural top, glazed access door and a silvered brass sight ring. Note: Andrew Barrie is listed as working from 1840 and died in 1907. In the 1851 Census he is listed as working at 3 Wallace Place. He was employing 8 men and had 2 apprentices. Maker Barrie of Edinburgh
Historical context
Industrial Revolution (1850 – 1900)
American interchangeable-parts manufacture; railroad time standards; Swiss and German factory systems.
Factory production transformed the clock into an everyday object. American makers (Seth Thomas, Ansonia, Waterbury) and German factories (Junghans, Gustav Becker, Lenzkirch) sold millions of shelf, wall and alarm clocks worldwide; France produced standardised Paris movements and carriage clocks; electric time distribution began.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Precision & Scientific 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.
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