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information please on this long case clock


measuretwice

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I saw this for sale and it has some appeal....knowing very little about them and their history, I was hoping you guys could educate me about it.  The seller says its from the early 19th century and there are makers names label or logos anywhere.    Thanks!

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This is an 8 day Longcase Clock with rack striking on a bell every hour, with moon faze, arch calendar with seconds hand.   The pillars design show this movement to be around 1800 to 1820, this also fits in with the dial, showing the minutes numbered every quarter hour. With this type of dial, they are called White dial Longcase clocks. With these painted dials, the less paint and good detail the earlier they are, dials that are heavily painted with poor detail the latter they are. The hands all match and are original to the clock. The hood of the clock is in the style of the Broken Arch type with quite plain pillars. Wide door that is correct for this period, the narrow doors are very early Longcases.  

It has some poor repairs, which I’ll point out. The one that bothers me is the angle of the pallets, which are sloping down, this tells me that the pallets could be worn; the escape wheel has worn teeth. Sometimes cowboys will remove the two pins from the pallet bridge, file and make the two screw holes into an oval shape,  you drop the bridge down to enable the pallets to have a deeper depth to the escape wheel, this causes the pendulum to have a better swing and to keep it going, to shallow and the clock will stop due to wear. This is a disgusting practice and will cause wear in other parts of the escapement. The bell post looks as if it has been soldered or glued.  The finger on the rack that drops onto the snail has been soldered.

With painted longcase clocks you have what is called a false plate, this plate is pinned to the dial and the movement is pinned to the plate, in many cases the plate will have to name of the company or forged the plate (note this is not the makers name of the clock)

Not sure about the wood but I think it is stained oak.

What is that mark on the dial just below the arch of the calendar?  

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thanks for  the great discourse!  I would not have notice the pallet angle.  Also thanks for detailing the reasons behind the dating of it, helps me learn.

I don't have access to it to examine the name, I was considering purchasing it but unfortunately i went follow to up on it and its gone!   Oh well, there will others :)

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