PROPERTY OF THE GEORGE DANIELS EDUCATIONAL TRUST
Joseph Knibb. A small ebonised month-going roman striking longcase clock, London, circa 1685, the case associated and substantially re-built
Lot. Vendu
84,100 GBP
(Prix d’adjudication avec commission acheteur)
Details & Cataloguing
Arts of Europe
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Londres
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Joseph Knibb. A small ebonised month-going roman striking longcase clock, London, circa 1685, the case associated and substantially re-built
10-inch latched dial with wheat ear border and signed along the lower edge Joseph Knibb Londini Fecit, winged cherub spandrels, skeletonised chapter ring, finely matted centre with date aperture, finely pierced hands, the movement with five latched ringed and knopped pillars, reversed five wheel trains, outside count wheel cut for roman notation, striking on two bells, anchor escapement, the backplate cut for the anchor and applied with a movement securing bracket, the pendulum with butterfly thumb piece above the threaded bob and fine regulation thumb piece above the back cock, the associated case with shallow domed cresting to the rising hood with three brass ball finials above a moulded cornice, frieze fret and spiral pilasters, spoon locking, the trunk with long panelled door, the plain plinth with bun feet.
201cm. 6ft. 7in. high overall
Lire le rapport d'état
Lire le rapport d'état
201cm. 6ft. 7in. high overall
Provenance
A label inside the trunk door states that this clock was once the property of the 13th Earl of Erroll, Slains Castle, Scotland.
Description
Joseph Knibb, the most famous and inventive member of the celebrated Knibb clockmaking family was born circa 1640. He was apprenticed to his cousin Samuel in about 1655 and after serving seven years worked first at Oxford and then moved to London in 1670 where he was made Free of the Clockmakers' Company. He must soon have built up a good reputation for himself as it is recorded that he supplied a turret clock for Windsor Castle in 1677 and payments were made to him in 1682 on behalf of King Charles II.
No other maker produced such an intriguing variety of striking and repeating mechanisms and perhaps the most interesting of these is the Roman system employed in this clock. It is an ingenious method of accurately sounding the hours by a smaller number of blows than the conventional system. Two bells are used, the smaller of which indicates the Roman I as displayed on the dial and the larger bell the Roman V. The Roman X is indicated by two blows on the larger bell. The greatest number of blows struck at any hour is four at 8 and 12 o'clock. The advantage of the Roman system is that the clock has to make only twenty-six blows in twelve hours compared with seventy-eight blows on a conventional clock. The numeral for 4 o'clock, on a Roman striking clock, is shown as IV, requiring only two blows, rather than the more usual IIII. Knibb may have had some difficulty persuading his clients to accept this form of striking as examples are rare and the notation is, at first, confusing.
Towards the end of the 17th century Joseph Knibb moved to Hanslop in Buckinghamshire. A few clocks with the Hanslop address are known but by the early years of the 18th Century Knibb had virtually retired; he died in December 1711.
No other maker produced such an intriguing variety of striking and repeating mechanisms and perhaps the most interesting of these is the Roman system employed in this clock. It is an ingenious method of accurately sounding the hours by a smaller number of blows than the conventional system. Two bells are used, the smaller of which indicates the Roman I as displayed on the dial and the larger bell the Roman V. The Roman X is indicated by two blows on the larger bell. The greatest number of blows struck at any hour is four at 8 and 12 o'clock. The advantage of the Roman system is that the clock has to make only twenty-six blows in twelve hours compared with seventy-eight blows on a conventional clock. The numeral for 4 o'clock, on a Roman striking clock, is shown as IV, requiring only two blows, rather than the more usual IIII. Knibb may have had some difficulty persuading his clients to accept this form of striking as examples are rare and the notation is, at first, confusing.
Towards the end of the 17th century Joseph Knibb moved to Hanslop in Buckinghamshire. A few clocks with the Hanslop address are known but by the early years of the 18th Century Knibb had virtually retired; he died in December 1711.
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