Clocks · Clock
Tiffany Tall Case Sun/Moon Phase Clock circa 1900
- Maker / attribution
- Tiffany (maker)
- Date
- c. 1900
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Clock
- Auction house
- LiveAuctioneers auction archive
- Lot
- Item 96211100
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: lot 775, 2 DAY WINTER FINE ART & ANTIQUES AUCTION, Sarasota Estate Auction (2021), via LiveAuctioneers
- Catalogue title (original)
- Tiffany Tall Case Sun/Moon Phase Clock circa 1900 (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by LiveAuctioneers auction archive (lot Item 96211100), this is a clock by Tiffany, dated c. 1900. The Atlas places it in the Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking period (1900 – 1945) of its Clocks collection. 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
Lot description — Sarasota Estate Auction
Exquisite tall case grandfather’s clock engraved Tiffany & Co. N.Y. and sold by Tiffany's in the early 1900’s. Made of oak, it has an attractive moon phase dial with lunette and a gong that strikes on the half hour and hour. There is a seconds dial below the 12 on the clock face, two winding holes, brass spandrels, the center glass doors are flanked by fluted columns, decorative side panels, a beautiful carving on the lower door, and carved paw feet, and it measures 98 in. high x 23 1/4 in. wide at the base x 15 in. deep. It comes from a doctor’s estate in Irvington, New York, a prosperous village that once was the home of the Tiffany estate.Please note that all sales are final. No refunds will be given under any circumstances.
Historical context
Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
The wristwatch displaces the pocket watch; waterproof cases, self-winding and grand complications.
Between 1900 and 1945 clocks were electrified: master-clock systems ran factories and offices, synchronous mains clocks entered homes, and the Shortt free-pendulum clock set new standards of accuracy before the first quartz clocks (1927). Art Deco design reshaped mantel and table clocks.
Read the period in the timelineMore clocks from this periodEarlier: Industrial Revolution
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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