Clocks · Tavern clock
Tavern clock by John Dewe, Southwark, c. 1730–1735
- Maker / attribution
- John Dewe (maker)
- Date
- c. 1730–1735
- Historical period
- Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Place
- Southwark
- Object type
- Tavern clock
- Dimensions
- Height 158 cm
- Stock no.
- SKU 423
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Howard Walwyn (SKU 423)
- Catalogue title (original)
- JOHN DEWE. A fine George II period tavern clock. (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Howard Walwyn Fine Antique Clocks (dealer), London (stock number SKU 423), this is a tavern clock by John Dewe, made in Southwark, dated c. 1730–1735. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Clocks collection. Recorded dimensions: Height 158 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
A fine George II period tavern clock by this known maker of early tavern clocks. The unusual case has a “square” shield dial and deeply moulded concave surround. The gilt chapter ring is written in Roman hour numerals with a double minutes circle and outside five minute Arabic numerals with leafy scrolls to each corner. The elegantly written signature John Dewe Southwark beneath the dial runs the full width of the case and is typical of the earliest tavern clocks. The unusual earpieces are charmingly painted with birds on scrolls of leaves and flowers above a section of cross-hatching. The gilt chinoiserie decoration to the trunk door shows an oriental scene of figures before a pavilion set against a wooded background. To the sides there are gilt chrysanthemum sprays. The 8-day duration timepiece movement has an anchor escapement and rectangular shaped plates. The restored brass hands have arrow shaped tips and both the minute and hour hands are counterbalanced. The horizontal construction of the boards of the dial is unusual as they are normally vertical in a shield dial tavern clock. Date : circa 1730 – 1735 Height : 62 in (158 cm) Width : 30 in (76 cm) * The earliest tavern clocks are rare and in the definitive book ‘ English Dial Clocks ’ by Ronald E. Rose, there is a clock of almost identical design by the same maker. HW6243
Historical context
Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
Huygens' pendulum and balance spring transform accuracy; English makers develop the anchor and deadbeat escapements.
Huygens's pendulum (1656–57) improved clock accuracy from about a quarter of an hour to under a minute a day. The anchor escapement (c. 1670) and the long seconds pendulum created the longcase clock; London makers such as Fromanteel, Knibb, Tompion and Quare led European clockmaking, and French makers created the Boulle pendule.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Renaissance 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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