Clocks · Longcase clock
Regulator longcase clock by Hedge, Colchester, c. 1765
- Maker / attribution
- Hedge (maker)
- Date
- c. 1765
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- Colchester
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- oak
- Dimensions
- Height 7 ft 0 in (213 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 78
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 78)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Regulator longcase clock by Hedge of Colchester (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 78), this is a longcase clock by Hedge, made in Colchester, England, dated c. 1765. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: oak. Recorded dimensions: Height 7 ft 0 in (213 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 18th century oak longcase clock with Regulator quality movement by this famous Essex maker. The movement is of 8 day duration and strikes the hours on a single bell. The rare deadbeat escapement and maintaining power are very rare features to find on a provincial longcase clock in the 18th century. Also featuring a very large pendulum bob faced with brass to further enhance the accurate timekeeping. The arched full brass dial features Roman numerals, full Arabic minutes, seconds, blued steel hands and a square date aperture. The makers name and place of work is engraved to the arch on a silvered brass roundel and framed with typical spandrels of the periods. The corners also with applied brass spandrels. The well proportioned and small oak case has a plain base and stands on a deep single plinth, typical of the East Anglian Clockmakers. The trunk has a long broken arch shaped trunk door and a brass escutcheon to the lock. The hood displays solid plain oak pillars terminating with brass Doric capitals and with plain quarter pillars to the rear. Also with inspection windows to the sides and a pagoda top complete with its original brass finials. The centre finial can be removed to reduce the total height if necessary. Height with finial: 7'5½" / Without: 7'½" A very collectable Regulator longcase clock. . Note: Nathaniel Hedge was part of an extremely accomplished Clockmaking family spanning almost 200 years. Maker Hedge of Colchester
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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