Clocks · Tavern clock
Tavern clock by George Bennett
- Maker / attribution
- George Bennett (maker)
- Date
- 1802–1811
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Tavern clock
- Materials / technique
- metal; wood; glass
- Dimensions
- Overall: 2000 x 600 x 200 mm
- Holding institution
- Royal Museums Greenwich
- Accession / object no.
- ZAA0072
- Credit line
- National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
- Catalogue title (original)
- Tavern clock (English)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by Royal Museums Greenwich (object number ZAA0072), this is a tavern clock by George Bennett, dated 1802–1811. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: metal; wood; glass. Recorded dimensions: Overall: 2000 x 600 x 200 mm. The record is illustrated with 1 photograph.
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
Catalogue description — Royal Museums Greenwich
A round-dial tavern clock by George Bennett of Greenwich. The black-painted wood case has a 736.6 mm black-painted dial with gilt figures. The case is 1397 mm high. It incorporates an eight-day timepiece movement driven by a falling weight and controlled by a pendulum and anchor escapement. Tavern clocks such as this, with their large dials, were commonly installed in taverns, coaching inns and other publicly accessible places, giving travellers access to the right time or allowing them to set their watches. They were also often seen 'below stairs' in great houses. Many date the invention of the tavern clock to 1797, when William Pitt the Younger imposed a heavy tax on timekeepers. In response, it is said that tavern-keepers commissioned clocks like this one to accommodate public need. Tavern clocks are therefore often known as 'Act of Parliament' clocks. However, this type of clock existed from the 1720s and was popular throughout the 18th century. Public outcry forced Pitt to repeal his tax the following year, so the only real effect of the Act was to furnish a convenient name for a very popular type of clock. .
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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