George Blackie, Musselburgh – 1810
£4,250.00
A refined and well-proportioned early 19th-century Scottish mahogany longcase clock, the eight day movement striking the hours on a bell. The 13-inch painted break-arch dial is arranged with subsidiary seconds and calendar aperture, and signed Geo. Blackie Musselburgh. Within the arch is an engaging pastoral scene depicting a farrier at work, a subject both distinctly Scottish and emblematic of rural industry.
The spandrels are decorated with restrained gilt ornament centred upon a single, beautifully rendered pink rose in each corner — a motif characteristic of Scottish dial painting of the period, where floral decoration was often handled with particular delicacy and confidence. The dial furniture and layout remain pleasingly balanced, the painted surface offering warmth and charm consistent with the best provincial work of the era.
The case is of well-figured mahogany and follows the established Scottish interpretation of the George III form: a swan-neck pediment above a glazed hood door flanked by fluted columns; the trunk with shaped top door and matching fluted quarter columns; the base plain and unencumbered, allowing the elegance of the upper proportions to speak without distraction. Standing 206.5 cm in height, it presents with dignified verticality and harmonious scale.
George Blackie is recorded by Brian Loomes in Watchmakers and Clockmakers of the World as working in Musselburgh between 1796 and 1844. Musselburgh, lying just east of Edinburgh, supported a small but capable tradition of clockmaking serving both town and surrounding agricultural districts. Clocks of this type reflect the solid craftsmanship and decorative confidence of Scottish provincial makers at the turn of the 19th century — practical, enduring timekeepers enlivened by distinctive regional artistic expression.
Enquire about this clock
