Clocks · Longcase clock
Richard Street, Queen Anne Ebonised Longcase Clock, c. 1705
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- c. 1705
- Historical period
- Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- ebonised
- Dimensions
- Height 230 cm
- Stock no.
- SKU 74
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Howard Walwyn (SKU 74)
- Catalogue title (original)
- RICHARD STREET, QUEEN ANNE EBONISED LONGCASE CLOCK (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Howard Walwyn Fine Antique Clocks (dealer), London (stock number SKU 74), this is a longcase clock, made in London, England, dated c. 1705. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: ebonised. Recorded dimensions: Height 230 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 — Howard Walwyn
A fine Queen Anne ebonised 8-day longcase clock by this important clockmaker. The 12” square brass dial with subsidiary seconds dial and calendar aperture. Inside the trunk door is pasted with rare original paper Equation of Time table with printed repeat signature “Sold by RICH STREET Clockmaker at ye Dial & Two Crowns over againft St. Dunftans Church in Fleet-Street LONDON.” Height: 90 ½ in (230 cm) to top of caddy Height: 92 in (234 cm) excluding finials Height: 96 in (244 cm) including finials * Richard Street was a watchmaker, who was made a Free Brother in the Clockmakers’ Company in 1687. He is associated with Tompion, for whom he is believed to have made watches. Street is famous for the longcase clock commissioned by Isaac Newton in 1708 for Trinity College Cambridge Observatory which shows seconds in the arch area, perhaps the first use of this feature. He is listed on page in Brian Loomes’ Clockmakers of Britain: 1286 – 1700. Signed / Inscribed Rich Street London
Historical context
Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
Huygens' pendulum and balance spring transform accuracy; English makers develop the anchor and deadbeat escapements.
Huygens's pendulum (1656–57) improved clock accuracy from about a quarter of an hour to under a minute a day. The anchor escapement (c. 1670) and the long seconds pendulum created the longcase clock; London makers such as Fromanteel, Knibb, Tompion and Quare led European clockmaking, and French makers created the Boulle pendule.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Renaissance 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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