Clocks · Longcase clock
Regulator longcase clock by Bryson, Edinburgh, c. 1825
- Maker / attribution
- Bryson (maker)
- Date
- c. 1825
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- Scotland
- Place
- Edinburgh
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany, ebony
- Dimensions
- Height 6 ft 11 in (211 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 426
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 426)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Regulator Longcase Clock by Bryson of Edinburgh (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 426), this is a longcase clock by Bryson, made in Edinburgh, Scotland, dated c. 1825. 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 11 in (211 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 Domestic Regulator by these inventive and well known Scottish clockmakers. The substantial 8 day duration movement striking the hours on a bell and with Deadbeat Escapement and Harrison Maintaining Power. The round silvered brass dial showing both seconds and date dials. Also with matching blued steel hands and signed by the maker to the base of the dial in large capital letters. The large brass pendulum bob with regulation nut and wooden rod. The beautifully proportioned mahogany veneered case of typical drumhead design with fiddleback veneers to the trunk door flanked by reeded quarter columns and a flame mahogany veneered oval with ebony inlay surround. The base with a raised single moulding and shaped plinth. The hood with glazed concave brass bezel, plain drum shaped top and turned horizontal supports with ebony paterae. The case also with a rare Oatbeard Hygrometer feature below the main dial. Note: The Bryson family are described as eminent and inventive Clockmakers. Robert Bryson was born in 1778 and died in 1852. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and made a Sidereal Regulator for the Edinburgh Observatory. He had two sons, Alexander and Robert who succeeded him. Itâs quite possible that this clock was made by more than one Bryson as it is simply signed âBrysonâ. Alexander Bryson was a great inventor including âa new clock impelled by a combination of Gravitation and Electro Magnetismâ and âthe means of determining the presence of icebergs during fogs or darkness at sea.â This would explain the extremely rare feature of an Oatbeard Hygrometer to the case of this clock. It was most probably used for timekeeping purposes. Maker Bryson of Edinburgh
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.
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