Clocks · Longcase clock
Small moonphase longcase clock by Wright, Kennoway, c. 1810
- Maker / attribution
- Wright (maker)
- Date
- c. 1810
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- Scotland
- Place
- Kennoway
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- oak
- Dimensions
- Height 7 ft 0 in (213 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 511
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 511)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Small Moonphase longcase clock by Wright of Kennoway (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 511), this is a longcase clock by Wright, made in Kennoway, Scotland, dated c. 1810. 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 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 small oak longcase clock with Moonphase. The 8 day duration movement striking the hours on a bell and with an arched white dial showing seconds, date, Roman numerals, flowers and raised gold gesso work to each corner and a moonphase facility to the arch. Showing a Galleon and a building between each moon. The makers name signed to the centre of the dial and with very finely made blued steel hands. The solid oak case of typical Eastern Scottish design with seperate oak pillars and brass capitals to the hood, a swan neck top, matching brass paterea and a brass eagle finial to the centre. The swan neck top also inlaid with saintwood panels. The trunk door and flanked reeded quarter pillars and a typical 'Edinburgh' shape to the top of the door. The plain base stands on small bracket feet. A delightful example. Note: Moonphase longcase clocks are rarely seen in Scotland. This particular example is also quite small in its propotions. Kennoway in Fife was a small inland village which was of importance in the old days as the stage road ran through it on the way to the Ferry at Pettycur. Maker Wright of Kennoway
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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