The construction of various parts can and will help in dating your antique clock.Specifically the style and type of clock hand and the dial, both of which have varied over time.The earliest clocks were costly items, made for wealthy clients, principally served by London clockmakers, and rich timbers were used such as walnut and olive-wood.Cheaper versions were made from about 1690 by provincial clockmakers and for these oak was used, being a far less costly timber, though occasionally pine was used at a lesser cost still.Dating Antique Clocks can be an exact science providing you have the right reference books and the proper experience.However, if you don’t there are various little things that can help when dating antique clocks.Where two dialmakers’ names are stamped there, it is often when one maker took over the unused stock of another and a very useful guide indeed for dating a dial.
One of the earliest provincial grandfather clocks I have seen is dated 1689 by a maker called John Washbourn.ABBOTT – PLACE UNKNOWN – clock dials C1810 or 1820 ADAM, JOSEPH – GLASGOW – clock dials 1837 ALLDRIDGE, EDWARD – 37 DEAN ST., BIRMINGHAM 1833-61 ALLDRIDGE, EDWIN – BIRMINGHAM – clock dials 1833 to 1864 ANDERSON & CO – BIRMINGHAM – clock dials 1790 ASHWIN & CO – BIRMINGHAM – clock dials c1790 to c1800 ASHWIN & BYRNE – BIRMINGHAM 1792-98 BAKER & SON – BIRMINGHAM – clock dials 1846 BAKER, RICHARD – BIRMINGHAM – clock dials 1841 to 1866 BAKER, SAMUEL – BIRMINGHAM – clock dials 1823 to 1850 BAKER, SAMUEL & SON – BIRMINGHAM – clock dials 1858 BAKER, THOMAS – BIRMINGHAM – clock dials & clock maker 1839 to 1850 BAKER, WILLIAM I – BIRMINGHAM – clock dials 1822 to 1831 BAKER, WILLIAM II – BIRMINGHAM – clock dials & clock maker 1854 to 1867 BATKIN, WILLIAM & SON – BIRMINGHAM – printed dials 1803 BEACH, JOSEPH I – BIRMINGHAM – 1849 to 1863 BEACH, JOSEPH II – BIRMINGHAM – 1849 to 1880 BEILBY & HAWTHORNE – NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE – clock dials 1796 – c1817 BEILBY HAWTHORNE & WHITTAKER – HALIFAX & NEWCASTLE – clock dials c1800 BELL & MEUDELL – EDINBURGH – clock dials 1832 to 1849 BELL, P.– EDINBURGH – clock dials 1832 to 1852 BENNETT, EDWARD – SHEFFIELD – clock dial maker 1816 to 1833 BENNETT, ELIZABETH – SHEFFIELD – clock dial maker 1822 BLOOD, RICHARD – BIRMINGHAM – dial artist & maker 1813 to c1820 BOUCHER, DANIEL – BIRMINGHAM – clock dial painter 1808 to 1812 BROOKE, THOMAS – BIRMINGHAM – clock dials & clock maker 1812 BROWN, WILLIAM – BIRMINGHAM – dial writer 1851 BURGESS, ?A pine case, usually sold originally with a painted surface, cost about half the price of oak, at ten shillings (£0.50).Against these costs a London eight-day clock in its case of fine walnut veneers (very different in cost from solid walnut) might cost thirty pounds.