Clocks · Longcase clock
Scottish longcase clock by Miller, Montrose, c. 1785
- Maker / attribution
- Miller (maker)
- Date
- c. 1785
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- Scotland
- Place
- Montrose
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- oak, satinwood
- Dimensions
- Height 7 ft 0 in (213 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 80
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 80)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Scottish longcase clock by Miller of Montrose (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 80), this is a longcase clock by Miller, made in Montrose, Scotland, 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: oak, satinwood. Recorded dimensions: Height 7 ft 0 in (213 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
An excellent Scottish oak longcase clock of pleasing proportions. The 8 day duration movement striking the hours on a bell and with a 12" arched brass dial displaying a profusely engraved silvered brass centre displaying flowers, foliage and a neo classical urn above the square date aperture. Also with a seconds dial, blued steel hands and the corner spandrels depicting the four seasons. The arch displaying the makers name William Miller of Montrose and framed by typical spandrels depicting sea mythical creatures. The plain oak case of good colour with a long trunk door, brass escutcheon and a plain base with bracket feet. The hood with oak pillars topped with brass Doric capitals, inspection windows to both sides and a swan neck top inlaid with satinwood panels and with further unusual satinwood inlay to the paterea. Finishing with a brass eagle finial to the centre. Note: Alexander Miller of Montrose is listed as working in this area in the late 18th century. He died in September 1808. Montrose longcase clocks have a particular style of their own. Almost replicating the Edinburgh cabinetmakers but normally much smaller in their stature and design. Maker Miller of Montrose
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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