Dublin Longcase clock by P B Hand
€3,350.00
Product Description
P B Hand Dublin Longcase clock
This Dublin longcase clock was made by Patrick Bernard Hand who worked in Great Britain Street (Now Parnell Street) near the centre of Dublin in the mid-nineteenth century.
According to Brian Loomes in Watchmakers and Clockmakers of the World (21st Century Edition) Patrick Bernard was known to have been working in 1858. That was about the end of the era of hand-made longcase clocks both in Ireland and elsewhere in the British Isles: Cheap mass-produced clocks had been imported from America from the late 1840s and by the 1860s, German and french clocks were being imported in quantity..
Loomes also mentions Thomas Hand working in Naas in 1824 (possibly a relation?). The on-line lists of UK & Irish Clock and Watch Makers (c1600-c1940) (http://www.clockswatches.co.uk/) has no Hand surnames listed in Ireland.
The round dial is typical of Irish clocks of the mid-nineteenth century. and the case is somewhat subdued, lacking the frivolous decoration that often adorns later Irish clocks. The case is veneered with a finely figured Cuba Mahogany. It is not unusual to find a Dublin longcase clock of this type anywhere in the country and this example was recently cleared out from a house in west County Clare.
The movement is a standard, eight-day four pillar plated type with rack strike on a cast bell.
The winding drums that hold the cat-gut lines each have the Irish fourteen turns instead of the standard English sixteen The two cast iron weights may be original but its is clear from the half dozen names scribed into the back plate that the clock has a legacy of historical repair work.
The movement is currently undergoing a complete overhaul in our workshop.