How to Date a Mora Clock or Longcase Clock

The age of a Mora clock is read in two parts, which are often of different ages: the movement with its dial, made in Mora parish in Dalarna, and the case, which was made by a joiner where the clock was sold. The dial, the hands and the workmanship of the movement give the date of the movement, and the shape, mouldings and paintwork of the case give that of the case. For English and other longcase clocks the same method applies, with the shape of the dial and the clockmaker’s name as extra clues.

Facts

The history of the longcase clock

Before the 1650s even the best clocks lost a quarter of an hour a day. In 1657 Christiaan Huygens had a pendulum regulate a clock movement, as in Huygens’s pendulum clock, and the error fell to a few seconds. The anchor escapement, which arrived around 1670, needed only small swings of the pendulum and made a long pendulum possible. A seconds pendulum is just under a metre long, and to protect it and the weights the movement was enclosed in a tall case: the longcase clock.

The English longcase clock became the great clock of the 18th century in middle-class homes in England and spread to the Netherlands, Scandinavia and North America. The diagram of clock cases further down shows the names of the parts, and the movement diagram shows how the anchor escapement works.

The Mora clock

In Mora parish in Dalarna, clock movements were made from the 18th century as a sideline by farming families, often by whole households that divided the work between them. The clocks were sold all over Sweden, and production was at its height in the first half of the 19th century. When factory-made clocks became cheap in the second half of the century, it declined.

The movements were made in Mora, but the case of a Mora clock was usually made by a joiner where the clock was sold. The forms therefore vary greatly, from straight cases to the well-known shape with a waist and a round belly, sometimes called the woman’s shape. It belongs among the objects of Swedish folk tradition, like the Dala horse, and the guide to folk art gives the context.

The movement and the dial

Begin with the dial and the hands. A clock with only one hand, an hour hand, suggests a clock from before 1700 or one that has been rebuilt; after the pendulum, minute hands became common. On English longcase clocks the brass dial was square until about the 1770s, often with cast corner ornaments, and then more often had an arched top. The dial of a Mora clock may be painted or of brass.

The movement offers more clues. The movements of Mora clocks are of iron and brass, and hand-made wheels have small irregularities in the teeth. Look for traces of repairs, replaced parts and holes that are not used, and for whether the movement sits naturally in the case or has been given new fixings. On English clocks the clockmaker’s name and town appear on the dial, and the clockmaker can then be looked up in directories of working clockmakers.

The case

The case follows the styles of the period, but with a delay in the countryside. Curved crowns and mouldings point to the Rococo; straight lines, columns and small classical ornaments to the Gustavian style, as in the guide to Gustavian; and heavier, plainer forms to the Karl Johan style; see Gustavian or Karl Johan. The painting, with marbling, graining or flowers, says a great deal about the region but may be later.

The case is dated like other furniture, by joints, saw marks, nails and screws. The same method is used in the guides to dating an antique chest of drawers and dating an antique chair. The foot may have been sawn off when the clock was moved to a room with a lower ceiling, and a name or year painted on the case often refers to the owner or a wedding, not to when it was made.

English longcase clocks: movement and case

English longcase clocks can often be dated more closely. The movement may be a thirty-hour movement, with a single weight wound up by pulling a chain or rope, or an eight-day movement with two weights, wound with a key through two holes in the dial. The winding holes are thus visible directly on the dial.

Cases of oak, walnut or mahogany follow fashion: walnut and lacquerwork in the early 18th century, mahogany in the more expensive cases later in the century and oak in the provinces. From the 1770s painted dials of iron sheet became common, often with flowers or scenes in the corners, and they replaced brass dials in simpler clocks.

Step by step

First decide whether the movement and the case belong together. A movement and case from different times are common among both Mora clocks and English longcase clocks, and this is no forgery, but it changes the dating. Then date the movement from the dial, the hands and the workmanship, and the case from its shape, joinery and paintwork. The youngest part sets the earliest date for the clock as a whole.

Compare with clocks in museums, such as the Nordic Museum, and with the specialist literature on Mora clocks. The table clock’s counterpart, the pendule, and the Black Forest cuckoo clock show how other clocks are dated. The page on clocks has the history of timekeeping, and the era of folk tradition in design history places the Mora clock in its context.

How to recognise it

Exercise

Why can the movement and the case of a Mora clock be of different ages?