Late 19th century mahogany longcase clock, in perfect working order. The face signed by Maple and Company London.Founded in 1841 by John Maple, manufacturing and retailing from the hub of the furniture centre in London’s Tottenham Court Road, and through the founder & his son’s drive and excellence of the products of the company, expanded greatly, to have further workshops and points of sale in both Paris and Buenos Aires.
c. 1890
Maple and Co. were well known as makers and retailers of furniture and furnishings in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. They are recorded as having a workshop in Paris at Rue Boudreau from circa 1880 until 1905 supplying their retail premises in London based at Tottenham Court Road.
Traditionally, longcase clocks were made with two types of movement: eight-day and one-day (30-hour) movements. A clock with an eight-day movement required winding only once a week, while generally less expensive 30-hour clocks had to be wound every day. Eight-day clocks are often driven by two weights – one driving the pendulum and the other the striking mechanism, which usually consisted of a bell or chimes. Such movements usually have two keyholes on either side of the dial to wind each one. By contrast, 30-hour clocks often had a single weight to drive both the timekeeping and striking mechanisms. Some 30-hour clocks were made with false keyholes, for customers who wished that guests to their home would think that the household was able to afford the more expensive eight-day clock. Most longcase clocks are cable-driven, meaning that the weights are suspended by cables. If the cable was attached directly to the weight, the load would cause rotation and untwist the cable strands, so the cable wraps around a pulley mounted to the top of each weight. The mechanical advantage of this arrangement also doubles the running time allowed by a given weight drop.
Height92.00 inch(233.7 cm)
Width19.00 inch(48.3 cm)
Depth14.00 inch(35.6 cm)
Ref No. 5694