Clocks · Longcase clock
Scottish borders longcase clock by Trotter, Jedburgh, c. 1780
- Maker / attribution
- Trotter (maker)
- Date
- c. 1780
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- Scotland
- Place
- Jedburgh
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- oak
- Dimensions
- Height 7 ft 1 in (216 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 457
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 457)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Scottish borders longcase clock by Trotter of Jedburgh (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 457), this is a longcase clock by Trotter, made in Jedburgh, Scotland, dated c. 1780. 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 1 in (216 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
A small oak longcase clock from the Scottish borders. The movement is of 8 day duration and strikes the hours on a bell. The 12" arched brass dial has a separate silvered brass chapter ring, sunken seconds and date shown within a matted brass centre. The makers name and place of work is shown on a silvered brass cartouche in the arch and with brass spandrels to the corners and arch. The blued steel hands are typical of the style used at this period. The plain oak case is of a good light colour with a shaped long trunk door displaying a brass escutcheon and the base with small bracket feet. The hood has brass capped oak pillars and with a swan neck top finished with ornate brass paterea and central brass finial. Note: Alexander Trotter is listed as working in Jedburgh between 1788-1815. This clock features an unusual striking mechanism which uses one lever to carry our lifting, warning and locking. Maker Trotter of Jedburgh
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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