Clocks · Wall clock
Wall clock by Richard Cole, Cornhill, Ipswich, c. 1810
- Maker / attribution
- Richard Cole (maker)
- Date
- c. 1810
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- United Kingdom
- Place
- Cornhill, Ipswich
- Object type
- Wall clock
- Materials / technique
- mahogany
- Dimensions
- Height 54.5 cm
- Stock no.
- SKU 377
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Howard Walwyn (SKU 377)
- Catalogue title (original)
- RICHARD COLE. A fine George III period mahogany trunkdial wall clock with 15 inch, one piece wooden dial. (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Howard Walwyn Fine Antique Clocks (dealer), London (stock number SKU 377), this is a wall clock by Richard Cole, made in Cornhill, Ipswich, United Kingdom, dated c. 1810. 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 54.5 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 III period mahogany trunkdial wall clock with 15 inch, one piece wooden dial. The case of rich colour and figure has an ogee shaped access door to the base and a crisp return moulding to the front and sides. The one piece apron with elegant “ears” is a feature of the finest early trunkdials. Access doors to the movement are provided to both sides of the case, typical in early wooden dial clock cases. The one piece wood dial, 15 inches in diameter, is written in Roman numerals on the original, lightly crazed, white ground. The maker’s signature RICH COLE Cornhill IPSWICH is written above and below the dial centre. Both the slender steel hands have delicate heart shaped tips. The well-turned, concave brass bezel perfectly complements the concave mahogany surround. The 8-day fusee movement has 5 pillars and an anchor escapement. It has a flat steel pendulum rod with a heavy, brass faced lenticular bob. Height : 21 ½ in (54.5 cm) Dial width : 15 in (38 cm) Overall W idth : 17 ¼ in (44 cm) * Richard Cole was one of the most respected Suffolk makers. An extract from Suffolk Clocks and Clockmakers by Arthur L Haggar and Leonard F Miller is attached. Provenance : An English Private Collector in Essex. Bought at the BADA Fair in 2005 HW6142
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
Regulators, wall and Vienna clocks
A regulator is a precision pendulum clock used as a time standard in observatories, workshops and railway offices. Typical features are a deadbeat or Graham escapement, a temperature-compensated pendulum (mercury jar, gridiron or later invar), maintaining power and a regulator dial that separates hours, minutes and seconds. George Graham's deadbeat escapement (c. 1715) and his mercury pendulum, together with Harrison's gridiron, set the pattern for two centuries.
Wall clocks span a much wider range: the elegant Viennese Laterndluhr and Dachluhr of the Biedermeier period, the Dutch stoelklok and staartklok, English 'dial' clocks used in schools, offices and railway stations, and mass-produced spring and weight wall clocks from Germany (Gustav Becker, Junghans, Kienzle) and America.
What to look for
- Deadbeat escapement and compensated pendulum (gridiron rods, mercury jar or wood rod).
- A regulator dial with a large central minute hand and separate hour and seconds dials.
- Vienna regulators: glazed cases, slender pendulum, small weights, enamel two-piece dials.
- German factory trademarks stamped on the backplate (e.g. Gustav Becker anchor and crown, Junghans star).
Dating clues
- Graham-type deadbeat regulators: from c. 1720.
- Viennese Laterndluhr: c. 1800–1850.
- German factory 'Vienna-style' regulators: c. 1870–1930; Gustav Becker serial numbers allow close dating.
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.
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