Clocks · Tavern clock
Tavern clock by James Drury, London, Anno 1760
- Maker / attribution
- James Drury (maker)
- Date
- Anno 1760
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Tavern clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany
- Dimensions
- Height 169 cm
- Stock no.
- SKU 500
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Howard Walwyn (SKU 500)
- Catalogue title (original)
- JAMES DRURY. An exceptionally rare mahogany tavern clock (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Howard Walwyn Fine Antique Clocks (dealer), London (stock number SKU 500), this is a tavern clock by James Drury, made in London, England, dated Anno 1760. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: mahogany. Recorded dimensions: Height 169 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 — Howard Walwyn
An exceptionally rare mahogany tavern clock by this well-known London maker. The large case , of classic tavern clock style, has glazed doors on both sides of the trunk to view the winding of the weights. There is an access door on the right hand side to enable one to install the pendulum when setting up the clock. The veneer to the long front door has fine flame mahogany veneers. The ogee shaped base has been sympathetically restored. There are beautifully carved foliate mahogany scrolls to each side of the trunk at the top. The black painted mahogany dial comes in two sections and with a broad, crisply shaped moulded bezel. The case is signed in gilt letters on a black ground by the maker on a raised panel just below the dial surround. The chapter ring has gilt Roman hour numerals, a band of gilt dots for the minutes and outside five minute Arabic numerals. The flattened brass hands have elongated heart tips, the minute with counterpoise tail. The 8-day 2-train movement has substantial rectangular plates and a four wheel going train with anchor escapement. The hourly rack-striking train has the bell raised above the backplate of the movement. It has a steel rod pendulum with brass faced bob and two lead weights. Very unusually, the front plate is signed J. Drury London Anno 1760 in cursive script. Date: Anno 1760 Height : 66 in (169 cm) Dial : 34 in (86 cm) Depth : 9 ¼ in (23.5 cm) * The Drury s were a fine London clockmaking family working over three generations in Clerkenwell, London. James Dury was apprenticed in 1740 and a member of the Clockmakers’ Company from 1751 until his death in 1811. We once owned a superb silvered brass dial verge timepiece clock by this maker set within the gilt surround at the top of a walnut bureau bookcase. HW6174
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:Foliot
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