Clocks · Longcase clock
Scottish longcase clock by Thomas Morgan, Edinburgh, c. 1790
- Maker / attribution
- Thomas Morgan (maker)
- Date
- c. 1790
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- Scotland
- Place
- Edinburgh
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany, satinwood
- Dimensions
- Height 7 ft 4 in (224 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 471
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 471)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Scottish Longcase Clock by Thomas Morgan of Edinburgh (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 471), this is a longcase clock by Thomas Morgan, made in Edinburgh, Scotland, dated c. 1790. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: mahogany, satinwood. Recorded dimensions: Height 7 ft 4 in (224 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 elegant late 18th century Scottish longcase clock with exceptional cabinetwork. The movement is of 8 day duration and strikes the hours on a bell. The arched silvered brass dial has Roman numerals, Arabic minutes, seconds and a square date aperture. The makers name and place of work is engraved across the centre of the dial with elaborate scrolls, foliage and a large urn. The corners and arch are engraved with matching scrolls and foliage but the arch also has the addition of flag poles, firing cannons and lions. There is a dial to the centre which allows the clock to be silenced on demand. The blued steel hands are typical of the period. The exceptional cabinet work displays a superb flame veneered trunk door of exquisite colour. This is flanked by reeded quarter columns finishing with solid mahogany capitals. The base is similarly veneered with a book matched panel and standing on small bracket feet. The hood also displays reeded pillars terminating with brass Doric capitals and with wooden capitals to the rear of the hood. The pediment is finished with a typical Edinburgh swan neck top with a central brass finial, brass paterea, satinwood fretwork and inspection windows to the sides. An excellent and very collectable example. Note: Thomas Morgan of Edinburgh was apprenticed to William Nicol in November 1767. Originally from London he was admitted a Freeman of the Incorporation of Hammermen on November 1776. He is known to have worked from Clam Shell Turnpike, 30 South Bridge and finally to 1 Infirmary Street in May 1803. Maker Thomas Morgan of Edinburgh
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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