Clocks · Tavern clock
Tavern clock by Bethal, Stowmarket, c. 1780–1790
- Maker / attribution
- Bethal (maker)
- Date
- c. 1780–1790
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Place
- Stowmarket
- Object type
- Tavern clock
- Dimensions
- Height 159 cm
- Stock no.
- SKU 369
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Howard Walwyn (SKU 369)
- Catalogue title (original)
- BETHAL. A very well preserved George III period Tavern clock. (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Howard Walwyn Fine Antique Clocks (dealer), London (stock number SKU 369), this is a tavern clock by Bethal, made in Stowmarket, dated c. 1780–1790. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Recorded dimensions: Height 159 cm. The record is illustrated with 3 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 — Howard Walwyn
A very well preserved George III period Tavern clock with round white wooden dial and chinoiserie decoration. The case of traditional style with delicately shaped “ears” and ogee moulded base is finely decorated on the door with a pavilion and oriental figures in a bucolic rural landscape. The trunk sides are filled with chrysanthemum sprays. The round dial with the original white ground is written in black with Roman numerals, single minutes circle and outside five minute marks. The original pierced steel hands have heart shaped tips, the minute with counterpoise. The maker’s scrolling signature is written below the dial across the trunk between the ears. The timepiece movement of one week’s duration has a five wheel train with anchor escapement and steel pendulum rod with brass faced bob. The oval, brass cased lead weight is a copy of an original. Height : 62 ½ in (159 cm) Dial diameter : 29 ½ in (75 cm) * John Bethal (Bethell) is listed on page 68 of Brian Loomes’ Clockmakers of the World as working in Stowmarket, Suffolk in the last quarter of the 18 th century. HW6038
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
Domestic clocks
A clock combines four systems: a source of power (falling weight, coiled spring, or later electricity), a gear train that divides time, an escapement and oscillator that regulate it (foliot, pendulum or balance), and an indicating system of dial and hands or a bell. Its history runs from the large iron weight-driven clocks of the late thirteenth century to Renaissance spring-driven table clocks, the pendulum revolution of 1656, the factory clocks of the nineteenth century and electric and quartz clocks of the twentieth.
Domestic clocks also reflect regional furniture and decorative traditions — English longcase and bracket clocks, French pendules, Viennese regulators, Black Forest and American shelf clocks — and therefore record changing tastes as much as technical progress.
What to look for
- How the clock is powered: weights, spring barrel, fusee, electric coil.
- The oscillator: foliot, short pendulum, long seconds pendulum or balance.
- Whether it strikes: hour only (count wheel) or hours and quarters (rack striking).
- The maker or retailer's name on dial and movement, and any factory trademarks.
- Signs of alteration — replaced dials, converted escapements, 'married' cases.
Dating clues
- Before 1656 clocks used foliots or balances; after, most domestic clocks have pendulums.
- Anchor escapements spread after c. 1670; minute hands became common at the same time.
- Factory production in America and Germany transformed prices after c. 1840.
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:Verge escapementFoliot
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