Clocks · Longcase clock
Regulator style longcase clock by Brysons, Edinburgh, c. 1845
- Maker / attribution
- Brysons (maker)
- Date
- c. 1845
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- Scotland
- Place
- Edinburgh
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany
- Dimensions
- Height 6 ft 4 in (193 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 564
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 564)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Regulator style longcase clock by Brysons of Edinburgh (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 564), this is a longcase clock by Brysons, made in Edinburgh, Scotland, dated c. 1845. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: mahogany. Recorded dimensions: Height 6 ft 4 in (193 cm). The record is illustrated with 3 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 small Regulator style longcase clock by these Scottish Clockmakers to the Royal family. The 8 day duration movement striking the hours on a bell. The round silvered brass dial with Roman numerals and unusually no seconds. The makers signature is displayed between V and VII. Also with matching blued steel hands. The typical mahogany case as used by Bryson and many other Clockmakers at this period is unusually small. Standing at only 6ft 4 inches tall. The mahogany veneered case features a glazed trunk door with canted corners to the trunk, a plain base with a single plinth and an elegant architectural top to the plain hood. The dial can be accessed via a glazed hood door. A very sought after and collectable Scottish longcase clock. NOTE: The Brysons were not only famous in the Clockmaking world but also the Scientific establishment. They were also Clockmakers to the Royal family. The business began in the early 19th century with Robert Bryson, a very competent and inventive maker. Alexander and Robert, his two sons had joined him in business by the 1841 Census. The business then became known as Bryson & Sons or just simply Brysons. Alexander was not just a Clockmaker but also an Inventor of all types of apparatus from a device that detected Icebergs to an Improved Aneriod Barometer. The business carried on through the 19th century with Robert Snr passing away in 1852, Alexander in 1866 and then Robert Jnr in 1886. The business then passed in to the hands of Hamilton & Inches which is still in existence today. Fully restored, movement serviced & guaranteed for 3 years.
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 (recoil) escapementDeadbeat escapementAnchor escapement
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