Clocks · Longcase clock
Rocking ship automata longcase clock by Olive, Penryn, c. 1785
- Maker / attribution
- Olive (maker)
- Date
- c. 1785
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- Penryn
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany
- Dimensions
- Height 6 ft 9 in (206 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 253
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 253)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Rocking Ship Automata Longcase Clock by Olive of Penryn (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 253), this is a longcase clock by Olive, made in Penryn, England, dated c. 1785. 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 9 in (206 cm). The record is illustrated with 5 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 example of Cornish Clockmaking with Rocking Ship Automata. The 8 day duration movement striking the hours on a bell. The brass dial with separate silvered brass chapter ring, brass spandrels and a very well engraved silvered brass centre of a seascape, tower and ruined castle. Also featuring seconds and date aperture. The arch with an original Rocking Ship feature again with seascape background and makers name. The mahogany case with a long trunk door with a shaped top and elaborate starburst inlay to the centre. The base with bookmatched mahogany veneer, single plinth and shell inlay. The hood with brass capped angle pillars and a glazed hood door. The flat top with typical West Country fretwork. Note: Thomas Olive of Penryn was not only a Watchmaker but also a Silversmith and Gunsmith. He is listed as working in Lower Street in 1768. Original brass dial Rocking Ship longcase clocks are now exceedingly rare. This is a very fine provincial example. Maker Olive of Penryn
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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