Clocks · Wall clock
Wall clock by Samuel Thorndike, Ipswich, c. 1790
- Maker / attribution
- Samuel Thorndike (maker)
- Date
- c. 1790
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- United Kingdom
- Place
- Ipswich
- Object type
- Wall clock
- Dimensions
- Height 150 cm
- Stock no.
- SKU 425
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Howard Walwyn (SKU 425)
- Catalogue title (original)
- SAMUEL THORNDIKE. A fine Georgian tavern wall clock by this well-known Suffolk clockmaker. (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Howard Walwyn Fine Antique Clocks (dealer), London (stock number SKU 425), this is a wall clock by Samuel Thorndike, made in Ipswich, United Kingdom, dated c. 1790. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Recorded dimensions: Height 150 cm. 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
Dealer description — Howard Walwyn
A fine Georgian tavern wall clock with gilt and chinoiserie decorated case, by this well-known Suffolk clockmaker. The round white dial has Roman numerals with an outer minutes circle and is enclosed by a moulded surround. The shaped brass hands have heart-shaped tips and the minute hand is counterpoised. The elegant case is fully signed beneath the circular dial, Saml. Thorndike Ipswich , and the trunk door is beautifully decorated with oriental figures within a garden landscape. The sides display the typical chrysanthemum decoration within a gilt border. The 8-day weight-driven movement has an anchor escapement, with steel rod pendulum and lead weight. Height: 59 in (150 cm) Width: 28 in (71 cm) Depth: 7 ½ in (19 cm) * Samuel Thorndike , Ipswich, was born in 1757 and made free of the Clockmakers’ Company in 1780. He married in 1781 and he is recorded as working in Butter Market until 1801. He died in 1819. HW5541
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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