Скачать или смотреть The Hurst Longcase Night Clock, c. 1669 an architectural striking longcase night clock C

The Hurst Longcase Night Clock | Circa 1669

An exceptionally rare Charles II ebonised architectural striking longcase night clock, attributed to the Fromanteel workshops.

Height: 6 foot 11 inches (2057 mm).

Case: The architectural case of simplified form in ebonised pearwood-veneer onto an oak carcass, the hood with spoon catch rising to avoid the chimney, with fine original architectural mouldings beneath a restored triangular pediment, below the frieze is an unadorned front door with ‘square’ lock access doors to both sides; one for inserting the night lamp; the other for operating the maintaining-power lever. The hood rests on a restored convex throat moulding above a rectangular raised panelled trunk door mounted straight to the trunk side. The plain ebonised veneered plinth surmounted by a fine overhanging cavetto/ovolo moulding and raised on four later turned bun feet. The inside upper part of the backboard is mounted with a re-instated tinplate chimney, above an integral tin fireback and lamp stand, hinged to a batten, onto which sits a removable twin-wick lamp reconstructed in copper. The chimney protrudes through an aperture in the flat top of the hood masked by the pediment.

Dial: The 107⁄8 by 1313⁄16 inch (276 by 350 mm) rectangular, multi-piece, engraved brass and painted dial with four latched feet. The repaired outer brass frame with traces of original fire-gilding; the upper section engraved with columns supporting an arch, pierced with single-hole five minute markers below Arabic engraved minutes, and three-hole quarter- hour markers, its inner edge serrated for minute indication, with the upper corners engraved with figures emanating from stylised flowerheads with scrolling foliage; the lower section with a moral verse in two lined boxes. The central painted Italianate scene, of a temple set against a mountainous landscape, is centred by a subsidiary brass Arabic seconds ring engraved anti-clockwise, with a large revolving blue sky disc above, painted with birds in flight and clouds, and incorporating two opposing apertures with twin-discs behind; one for even numbered hours; the other for odd numbered hours and the next sequential hour arrives at the start of the arch as the previous one leaves it. The hours are indicated by the number of holes through which the light shines, so that seven holes indicates 7 o’clock, while the hours position in relation to the outer serrated arch indicates the minutes past the hour, at night using the minute-hole markers.

Duration: 8 days.

Movement: The substantial 103⁄4 by 51⁄4 inch (273 by 133 mm) rectangular ‘landscape’ movement with five finned baluster pillars, latched to the frontplate. Both trains have large greatwheels projecting below the plates and the four-wheel going train is reverse-wound, so that the escape wheel and seconds hand rotate anti-clockwise, allowing the ‘sky’ minute disc to rotate clockwise. The early anchor escapement is inverted, with a cut-out in the backplate for the ‘upside-down’ pallets, while the pendulum is suspended from a typical ‘Fromanteel’ single footed, bent and integrally-pinned, backcock. The bolt-and- shutter maintaining power is activated via a lever mounted on the right hand (III) side. The strike train is governed by an external countwheel, mounted direct onto the barrel arbor through the backplate, striking the hours on a large bell vertically mounted within the plates. The ingenious strike/silent system is actuated by the weight of the night lamp on a lever projecting above the backplate that draws the hammer away from the bell, allowing the strike train to be let-off and the countwheel to remain synchronised, withdrawal of the lamp during the day reactivates the hammer and the hour bell can be struck normally. To increase ventilation up the trunk and minimise the build up of heat from the two flames, the movement plates rest directly on the case cheeks, without a seatboard, and are secured by two screws into the sides of the outer base pillars, through iron case brackets nailed onto each cheek.

Escapement: Early anchor, pallets inverted, operating from below the conventional escapewheel.

Strike Type: Outside countwheel, hour striking, fixed to the greatwheel arbor.

Provenance:

• Sotheby’s, 5 June 1989, lot 528.
• Sotheby’s, 5 June 1997, lot 334.
• Edward Hurst and RA Lee, sold in 1999 for £85,000.

Exhibited:

• 2003, Horological Masterworks, Oxford Museum for the History of Science and the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, exhibit no.20.

Literature:

• Robinson, The Longcase Clock, 1981, p.155.
• Roberts, British Longcase Clocks, 1997, p.71.
• Antiquarian Horology, March 2000, front cover illustration, and Michael Hurst, ‘Early English Pendulum Clocks’, p.278-292.
• Horological Masterworks, 2003, p.90-93.

For further information about Dr John C Taylor, please visit: https://www.johnctaylor.com