Clocks · Longcase clock
Walnut grandfather clock by Stumbels, Totnes, c. 1740
- Maker / attribution
- Stumbels (maker)
- Date
- c. 1740
- Historical period
- Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- Totnes
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- walnut
- Dimensions
- Height 7 ft 8 in (234 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 185
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 185)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Antique Walnut Grandfather Clock by Stumbels of Totnes (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 185), this is a longcase clock by Stumbels, made in Totnes, England, dated c. 1740. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: walnut. Recorded dimensions: Height 7 ft 8 in (234 cm). The record is illustrated with 6 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 — P A Oxley
An exceptionally rare walnut longcase clock by this famous provincial maker. The 8 day duration five pillar movement with rare centre seconds and striking the hours on a bell and on demand via a repeat cord from within the case. The fifth pillar of the movement left unpinned and the movement also features a rolling banking pin to the rack arm. The high quality full brass dial with separate silvered brass chapter ring, date aperture below XII, finely matted centre and exquisitely made blued steel hands. The makers name engraved on an elaborately made cartouche to the centre of the dial. The arch with strike/silent facility and dolphin spandrels. The well figured and substantial walnut case with a long trunk door with ogee top with reeded canted corners to the sides. The base with a plain double plinth and a raised crossbanded panel with oyster wood veneers to the sides. The hood with broken arch top, sound fret and plain walnut angle pillars with large brass capitals. Note: William Stumbels has been described in the past as a very inventive maker who was probably the most brilliant maker of his time outside London. He was married in 1716 and died in 1769. He was well known for making high quality longcase clocks for some of Devons finest country houses. The dial of this clock shows some very well crafted features as does the movement. There is 13ft high equation longcase clock by William Stumbels in Powderham Castle near Exeter, Devon. Maker Stumbels of Totnes
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
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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