Product Description

Benjamin Shuckforth Diss Longcase clock

The Benjamin Shuckforth Diss Longcase clock is of a type associated with the better off rural classes than the landed gentry. The market town of Diss on the Norfolk, Suffolk border had quite a few clockmakers in the eighteenth century. Benjamin Shuckforth was one of those who returned to his native town after his apprenticeship in London.

He seems to be a well documented maker and details of his life have been made available by Brian Loomes on one of his collecting antique clocks pages: According to the Watchmakers and Clockmakers of the World Directory, he was born circa 1688. His place of work was in the Market Place; he married in 1732 and died in 1760.

This clock is a posted movement, (often referred to as a “birdcage movement”. Four posts at the corners join to an bottom plates, into which bars are fixed to support the wheels. The arrangement of going train located in front of strike train is a direct descendant of medieval clocks: Like most 30-hour clocks is uses a single weight.

The dial is small at 10″ but in scale with the small size of the clock (about 6 feet 4 inches tall): The corner spandrels which are sharply defined are of a type described by H Cescinsky and M R Webster in English Domestic Clocks as CW 21, a type popular in the period 1730 – 35.

The single hand is original to the clock as far as it is possible to tell: It has the usual tail to allow it to me moved more easily to set the time. It is possible to estimate the time to within about 5 minutes from a single hand clock. When it was made, there was no accurate way to set it and no requirement for that level of punctuality.

The Benjamin Shuckforth Diss longcase clock is not an embellished, ornate decorative object: There are two spiked orb finials on the hood which were gilded recently gilded with 23.5 carat gold. Otherwise, it is a somewhat puritanical functional clock made only about fifty years after the installation of William or Orange as the English King in preference to James II: The case is plain English oak although the edges are relieved slightly with somewhat discrete cut mouldings.

Benjamin Shuckforth Diss Longcase clock