Clocks · Longcase clock
Rocking ship automata longcase clock by Bullock, Bath, c. 1820
- Maker / attribution
- Bullock (maker)
- Date
- c. 1820
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- Bath
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany, ebonised, ebony
- Dimensions
- Height 7 ft 6 in (229 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 482
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 482)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Rare Rocking Ship Automata by Bullock of Bath (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 482), this is a longcase clock by Bullock, made in Bath, England, dated c. 1820. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: mahogany, ebonised, ebony. Recorded dimensions: Height 7 ft 6 in (229 cm). The record is illustrated with 4 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 West Country longcase clock with rare Rocking Ship Automata. The movement is of 8 day duration and strikes the hours on a bell. The 12" white dial is decorated with roses, foliage and gold leaf detail to the corners and Roman chapters to the centre of the dial. Also showing both seconds, date, matching blued steel hands and the makers name and place of work. The arch has the rare feature of a Rocking Ship Automata displaying a Castle Fort with a single soldier on guard. The Galleon is fully equipped with cannons and is shown in a rough sea with other tall ships in the distance. The mahogany case is veneered with the finest flame mahogany to both the trunk door and base panel. The case is also inlaid throughout with thick ebony veneer and also boxwood detail above the trunk door. The hood cresting is typical of the Bath area from this period. The hood also features brass capitals to the ebonised reeded pillars, a glazed access door framed with typical fret cut surround and three brass finials to the crested top. An excellent and desirable example. Note: William Bullock was born in 1777 and was the son of Thomas Bullock, Clockmaker of Bath. He worked at various places in Bath including Cold Bath, Claverton and 19 Claverton Street. He died in 1846. His Widow, Grace Bullock, continued the business until 1850 whien it was taken over by William Vokes. Maker Bullock of Bath
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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