A lovely elegant mahogany ‘8-day’ arched silvered brass dial grandfather clock. James Gray of Edinburgh engraved to the dial. The movement striking the hours on a single bell. Lovely case with swan neck pediments and reeded quarter columns. Altogether standing on bracket feet. Finally the dial finely engraved and with seconds and calendar features.
A superb slim flame mahogany veneered arched brass dial Longcase clock. Featuring ‘8-day’ duration movement by Robert Clidsdale of Edinburgh. The dial with chapter ring and spandrels. Also with polished and engraved centre. The movement striking the hours on a single bell. Finally the cabinet with quarter columns and swan neck pediments.
Superb brass dial Longcase Clock C.1780 by Lawrence Dalgleish of Edinburgh.Lovely flame mahogany veneered cabinet. Featuring ‘8-day’ duration movement.The arch brass dial with chapter ring and spandrels. Also with polished and engraved centre. Together with centre date, seconds feature, and strike/silent to arch.
Outstanding ‘8-day’ duration Longcase clock C.1790 by George Youl of Edinburgh. The arched white dial with gold leaf decoration to corners and arch and a ship scene to dial centre. White dial with superbly painted scene. The case of the finest mahogany veneers, boxwood strung.
A good 12 inch mahogany Longcase clock C.1790. Featuring an arched brass dial signed by Robert Clidsdale of Edinburgh. The dial also with chapter ring and spandrels, seconds and calendar features. Together with finely matted centre. Clearly a cabinet of elegant proportions. Fine box inlay to case. ‘8-day’ duration
A superb, flame veneered mahogany Longcase clock. Featuring an ‘8-day’ duration movement by John Scott. The arched dial showing seconds and calendar and ship automaton to the arch. This also portraying the ‘Glorious 1st June 1794’. Delicately painted corners and arch. In addition the movement striking the hours on a single bell. The cabinet of wonderful colour and patination and superb delicate inlay work. The case standing on bracket feet and with ‘swan-neck’ pediment to the top.
A good slim mahogany Longcase clock of ‘8-day duration. Featuring arched silvered brass dial by Thos Morgan of Edinburgh. The cabinet with quarter reeded columns and long trunk door. Also with cross-banding and inlay. Furthermore the base also being delicately strung and with cross-banding in mahogany. The silvered dial with seconds and calendar and with superbly engraved centre. Together with engraving to the corners and arch. The movement striking hours on a single bell.
An outstanding quality ‘8-day’ duration flame mahogany Longcase clock. Featured here an arch brass dial by this superb Scottish maker James Cowan. The dial showing chapter ring and spandrels, seconds and calendar aperture. Also with finely matted centre. In addition the makers name being engraved on a cartouche to the arch. Also strike/silent feature to the arch.The high quality movement striking the hours on a single bell. The cabinet with wonderful colour and patination. Swan neck pediments and bracket feet. Long trunk door with choice mahogany veneers.
Featured here a good quality C.1790 ‘8-day’ duration flame mahogany veneered Longcase clock. Shown with arch white dial by Robert Green. First of all the elegant proportions Scottish cabinet with boxwood stringing and shell inlay to base. In addition the cabinet with swan neck pediments and bracket feet.The hood with reeded hood columns. Another feature is the fretwork below the swan neck pediments. Including brass paterae to the top of swan neck.
The cabinet showing good colour and patination.
Clearly a good quality eight day movement striking the hours on a single bell.
The delicately painted dial with gold leaf decoration and flowers to the corners. Makers name enclosed with flowers to the arch. Subsidiary seconds and calendar features to the dial. Furthermore the clock with matching ‘diamond’ blued iron hands. To sum up a fine Scottish clock.
‘Old Scottish Clockmakers’, by John Smith From 1453 to 1850 has Robert Green listed working from 1781-1834. On the 3rd November 1781, he was bound apprentice to James Howden. 17th January 1789 he was,’Discharged of his indentures.’ On the 4th May 1793 he,’Compeared and presented his essay. This being a watch movement, begun, made, and finished in presence of James Howden Landlord, Geo. Skelton, David Murray, and John Sibbald, essay masters as they declared, etc.’ E.H.Records. He listed a sale of ‘superior watches and clocks at reduced prices’ on 14th May 1832, as he retired from business.
I have written many pieces about different types of antique clocks. In my next few blogs, I would like to concentrate on clockmaking from different parts of the British Isles. My first port of call is to the great country of Scotland. As I speak this great country is still part of the United Kingdom. Fingers crossed after over 300 years of being together, it will still be part of the United Kingdom come September 2014.
A great reference book on this topic is Scottish Clockmakers. This is written by John Smith, this charts the development of clockmaking in Scotland from 1453 to 1850. In this book it shows the importance of the Hammermen in Scotland. An organization governing antique clocks and various other trades. In London, clocks were produced by the rules governed by the Clockmakers Company. By 1650 clockmakers started increasing in Scotland.
This was when the clockmakers started being recognized by this branch of the locksmith trade, the various Hammermen Incorporations. The clockmakers were recognized as a branch of the Hammermen in Aberdeen.
Below I have given some but by no means all of the leading lights of Scottish antique clockmaking in the 17th and 18th and 19th centuries. Apologies to those makers I have left out, as the list is very long.
There were a number of very distinguished Scottish makers: such men as Humphrey Milne Edinburgh; Andrew Brown,1665-1712 Edinburgh; Alexander Brownlie 1710-39 Edinburgh;James Cowan, 1744-81 Edinburgh;John Smith Pittenweem unknown-1814; Thomas Gordon; Thomas Reid 1762-1823 Edinburgh; James Howden and son 1764-1842 Edinburgh;Laurence Dalgleish; Alexander Dickie 1762-1808 Edinburgh; Alexander Cumming 1733-1814 Edinburgh /London; finally Dallaway and sons Edinburgh 1785-1812 being but a few of them.
The last entry on this list deserves a mention even though they are not strictly clockmakers. Dallaway produced nearly all the white dial grandfather clock dials in Edinburgh during the end of the 18th century. In England this was carried out in Birmingham by Wilson and Osborne.
There are some very special names on the list above, John Smith produced some amazing clocks from a tiny fishing village called Pittenweem in the 18th century. You will notice most of the other top makers come from the major towns like Edinburgh. To produce the spectacular clocks that John Smith did in such a tiny place miles from anywhere is astonishing. He deserves special mention. He has clocks in Royal collections and there is a superb example pictured below. The case I believe was purchased from a London case maker on John Smiths only recorded visit to London. A really rare example.
The finest Scottish Grandfathers clocks from the middle to the end of the 18th century had there very own distinctive elegant case style as shown by the clock pictured by the top clockmaker below.
You will notice superb case design on the Pre C1800 antique clocks from the east coast of Scotland. The clock above is from Prestonpans is a small town to the east of Edinburgh, but for all account is classical Edinburgh case design for the period.
Antique Clocks from Edinburgh and further through Perth and Dundee to Aberdeen case design is really good. I must admit in over 40 years of seeing clocks to the west coast of Scotland though the case design is not the finest in this vicinity. Whereas we have owned and sold hundreds of clocks from Edinburgh, Perth and Dundee, we have only wanted to own one clock from Glasgow in all that time. Most of the time the grandfather clocks from the west coast are not so elegant. The hoods tend to be not greatly proportioned. It is in my opinion clocks from cities like Edinburgh and the east coast of Scotland managed to find some of the best proportions in case design of all clocks, and Glasgow case design some of the worst.
The contrast in design is very large but I suppose everyone’s taste is different! In the picture below you will see the lovely figuring of the mahogany to the trunk door. Many Scottish examples have this twirl to the trunk door from the tree veneers. A lovely feature, quarter columns etc make the elegance of the Scottish cabinets even better. You will not go far wrong in choosing an antique grandfather clock from Scotland, especially if it was made pre C1800 and from the east coast of Scotland.
We also stock a superb selection of Scottish antique clocks. Most of them pre C1800 but occasionally we have a lovely later Scottish clock like this one from a small town called Old Deer. You can find this clock by clicking here: Old Deer Scottish Antique Grandfather Clock.
Daniel Clements – Pendulum of Mayfair London