Clocks · Longcase clock
Regulator grandfather clock by Stoddart, London, c. 1835
- Maker / attribution
- Stoddart (maker)
- Date
- c. 1835
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany, ebony
- Dimensions
- Height 6 ft 2 in (188 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 148
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 148)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Antique Regulator Grandfather Clock by Stoddart of London (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 148), this is a longcase clock by Stoddart, made in London, England, dated c. 1835. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: mahogany, ebony. Recorded dimensions: Height 6 ft 2 in (188 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
A rare small regulator longcase clock. The substantial 8 day duration movement with deadbeat escapement and Harrison maintaining power. Also with jewelled pallets to the anchor escapement. The wood rod pendulum with beat adjustment and a large brass bob with silvered brass rating nut and pointer. The 12" round silvered brass dial with typical regulator dial layout and makers name and town engraved. The small mahogany case with fine flame veneers to the trunk door along with canted corners. The base also with flame veneers and applied moulding. The hood with canted corners, ebony inlaid detail to the corners and plain broken arch top. Note: John Stoddart is listed as working between 1839-1844. He can also be found in the census records. In the 1841 census he is working in 7 Lower Charles Street, Clerkenwell. He is listed as married and has two children. Maker Stoddart of 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:Anchor escapement
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