Clocks · Longcase clock
Shuttlecock & windmill automata longcase clock by Jonathan Morse, Southampton
- Maker / attribution
- Jonathan Morse (maker)
- Date
- c. 1790
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- Southampton
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Dimensions
- Height 205 cm
- Stock no.
- Product 2062
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, The Antique Clock Company (product 2062)
- Catalogue title (original)
- SHUTTLECOCK & WINDMILL AUTOMATA LONGCASE CLOCK – JONATHAN MORSE – SOUTHAMPTON (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by The Antique Clock Company (dealer), Dorset (stock number Product 2062), this is a longcase clock by Jonathan Morse, made in Southampton, England, dated c. 1790. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Recorded dimensions: Height 205 cm. The record is illustrated with 2 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 — The Antique Clock Company
This very charming and high quality 8-day weight driven movement with anchor escapement strikes the hours on a bell via the rack and snail striking system. The 12” silvered dial with original painted break-arch depicts a wonderful scene of two people playing badminton, rallying the shuttlecock between them to and fro powered by the pendulum swinging back and forth. The windmill to the left of the scene kicks into action as the clock strikes each hour. There is a roman numeral chapter ring with subsidiary seconds and date dial all with finely blued steel hands. The stunning mahogany veneered case is very well proportioned and features two side windows to the hood with fluted columns and brass reeding. Height: 81″ (6ft 9″) or 205cm **This clock is delivered and set up for free within the UK. We regularly ship clocks all over the world with our trusted Fine Antiques Packers & Shippers. Please ask for a quote should you require this service.
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:Deadbeat escapementAnchor escapement
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