A fine example of a classic Edinburgh mahogany longcase clock.

The case has a beautifully moulded swan neck pediment and delicately pierced boxwood frets below. The reeded hood columns have brass doric capitals and bases and this reeding is repeated to the trunk. The trunk door and the base panel are veneered with richly figured flame mahogany with crossbanding and boxwood stringing.

The 12-inch break-arch silvered brass dial has Roman hour numerals, Arabic five minute markers and an outer minute track. The maker’s name George Stoddart, Edinburgh is engraved in the arch surrounded by elegant foliate engraving. There is a subsidiary seconds dial below XII and a round date aperture above VI. The clock retains its original well pierced steel hands.

The substantial 8-day movement has four baluster pillars and features rack striking of the hours on a bell. It has anchor escapement and a steel pendulum rod with brass faced bob. The weights are in cast iron.

Date: circa 1795

Height: 86 in (218.5 cm)

Width: 18 in (45.75 cm)

Depth: 9 ½ in (24 cm)

* This beautifully proportioned and patinated mahogany longcase clock has all the hallmarks of the best Edinburgh clocks of the late 1700s- both in the simplicity and appeal of its movement and case.

George Stoddart is listed on page 743 of Brian Loomes’ Clockmakers and Watchmakers of the World: 21^st Century Edition (NAG Press). He was working in Goosedub Edinburgh in 1793. He later moved to Buccleuch Street in 1822. His work is noted in Old Scottish Clockmakers by John Smith (Edinburgh, 1921), p. 204.

HW6565