The term longcase was used to describe a clock that came into being in the late 1600s. Although we also know it today as the Grandfather or Tall Case, the correct original term was Longcase. This was simply because it was a clock mechanism that had been put into a long wooden case, to protect its various dangling bits from harm.. a good idea I am sure we all agree.

The longcase clock was a development from what was simply known as the Clock in the 1600s., we now call this type a Lantern clock because that is what they look like. Lantern clocks were made to hang on the wall and run for up to 30 hours at a time – they were primarily used to tell the time overnight, the sundial being used in the day. These clocks were highly inaccurate, keeping only within 15 minutes or so overnight, but developments in the late 1670s. meant that the pendulum could be used as a regulator, bringing the accuracy rate to nearer a minute in that period. Because they were now accurate, they could be made to run for longer so time could be kept track of indoors at any time of day. The clock could now run for a week at a wind, but this meant in now had two weights and a long pendulum hanging down. Too heavy and too tempting for prying hands. This, together with changes in furniture fashions meant that cases were made to house the clock. The Longcase was born.

Initially, made of ebony, as was the fashion at the end of the 1600s., as the new century unfolded, other influences ( not least the Huguenots, with their marquetry skills, coming to England) meant more unusual and highly fashionable woods were used to adorn such cases. This was all in London of course, the country clockmaker was very scarce at this time, but by the early 1700s. country clockmakers too were making these Longcase clocks as their clients demand increased.

All these clocks had a brass dial, as had the lantern clock, just bigger to keep the proportions right. Country clock cases would be made in oak or pine at this stage, transport was poor, more exotic woods scarce and expensive, if your client wanted a walnut or marquetry case, it would be made in London and transported by wagon to the country. Barring small changes in the mechanism, which the client wouldn’t see anyway, there was no real changes until the introduction of mahogany in the 1740s., and the biggest change in the 1770s. of the introduction of the painted dial.

The painted, or white, dial ( sometimes called enamel, which it isn’t), was first invented by two clockmakers – Osborne and Wilson and first advertised in 1772. They were an almost instant success.

There were several reasons for this and price wasn’t one of them. They were initially more expensive than brass dials. The reasons for the success of the painted dial was a combination of ease, clarity, and fashion. Try looking at a brass dial in the evening, with all the lights off, and you will see why the new dial was much easier to read. Ease, because to make a brass dial the clockmaker would have had to plan ahead, he would probably have cast the dial plate himself, bought in the spandrals, possibly the chapter ring and calendar and seconds ring, or at least have had to get a professional engraver to mark in all the numerals etc. on the various parts of the dial, and then silver the appropriate parts, assemble it etc., all before the customer could even see it.

With the painted dial, it was one piece, it had all been marked out and decorated, and the clockmaker could order it in advance of his needs, keep some in stock to show a client when he came in.

Clocks were made to order at this time, not kept in a shop fully finished as we see them today, so before the painted dial introduction there must have been a lot of trust as to what the final clock would look like. Now the clockmaker had a ready finished product to show his client, and one that was easily fitted to the movement he was about to make, as these dials had what was know as a ‘Falseplate’, a plate of cast iron fitted to the back of the dial that could have holes drilled, as needed, to fit to the movement, in the brass dial these holes needed to be concealed under the various dial parts. So, for the clockmaker at least, it was much easier, and for the client also, as he could pick and choose, not from a catalogue, but from a finished product. This type of dial quickly made the brass dial obsolete. Except for the ‘one piece’ brass dial that was silvered all over to look like a painted dial, these dials were fashionable for 20 years or so after the introduction of the painted ones, when they also died out (except in London, where the painted dial never seemed to take off).

It is well into the 19th. century by now, clockmakers were still making their own movements, another popular miss-conception being that the painted dial clock was made wholly in Birmingham and only retailed by the clockmaker, this wouldn’t happen until the 1850s when the whole thing was becoming old fashioned anyway.

A new middle class was living in smaller houses and started buying imported mantel and wall clocks, the longcase was no longer wanted. It had lasted for well over 150 years in its various forms.

See my other article ‘ Buying a Longcase Clock’ for advice on this subject.