Clocks · Longcase clock
Walnut longcase clock by Thomas Hunter Jnr, London, c. 1760
- Maker / attribution
- Thomas Hunter Jnr (maker)
- Date
- c. 1760
- Historical period
- Precision & Scientific Horology (1750 – 1850)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- London
- Object type
- Longcase clock
- Materials / technique
- walnut
- Dimensions
- Height 7 ft 4 in (224 cm)
- Stock no.
- Product 459
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, P A Oxley (product 459)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Fine walnut longcase clock by Thomas Hunter Jnr of London (English)
View the source record (dealer listing) ↗ (opens another website in a new tab)Suggest a correction
Record summary
Catalogued by P A Oxley (dealer), Wiltshire (stock number Product 459), this is a longcase clock by Thomas Hunter Jnr, made in London, England, dated c. 1760. The Atlas places it in the Precision & Scientific Horology period (1750 – 1850) of its Clocks collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: walnut. Recorded dimensions: Height 7 ft 4 in (224 cm). The record is illustrated with 5 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 excellent mid 18th century London longcase clock with a highly figured walnut veneered cabinet work. The 8 day duration 5 pillar movement strikes the hours on a bell with the rack striking method and a recoil anchor escapement. The full brass dial has a separate silvered brass chapter ring, finely matted centre, seconds, date and displays the makers name and place of work to the arch. The arch and corners have matching brass spandrels. Also with well cut blued steel hands. The walnut veneered case has highly figured veneers to both the trunk door, hood, sides of the case and base panel. With quite an exceptional book matched veneer to the trunk door. Also with typical cross-grained mouldings, cross-banded veneer throughout the case and a plain double plinth with a raised veneered panel. The hood has reeded brass inlaid walnut pillars, brass Doric capitals to the top and bottom, quarter pillars to the rear of the hood, glass panels to the sides and terminating with a broken arch top. Note: Thomas Hunter junior is recorded in Baillie, G.H. Watchmakers & Clockmakers of the World as apprenticed 1734 gaining his freedom in 1742, he worked from New Broad Street Buildings, was appointed Warden in 1762 then served as Master in 1765, he died in 1785. Maker Thomas Hunter Jnr of London
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
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:Deadbeat escapementAnchor escapement
Related records
Clocks · 1740–1760
Longcase clock, English, 1740–1760, japanned wood, John Ellicott
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Clocks · c.1750
Long-case clock, English, ca. 1750, by Richard Peyton of Gloucester
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Clocks · 1751
Large wheel engine, signed and dated "John Tipping, Whildon Green, 1751".
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · 1755
Bracket clock by John Fordham, England, 1755
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Clocks · c. 1760
Longcase clock by James Cox, England, c. 1760
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Clocks · 1766
Clock by Alexander Cumming, England, 1766
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · 1768–1769
Regulator clock by John Shelton, England, 1768–1769
Science Museum Group, London
Clocks · c. 1775
Longcase clock, England, c. 1775
Victoria and Albert Museum, London