A month going small oak longcase clock, Fromanteel, Amsterdam, circa 1695

10-inch latched dial with crisply cast cherub and leaf spandrels, signed Fromanteel, Amsterdam, matted centre with ringed winding holes and calendar aperture, seconds dial and pierced and engraved brass hands, the movement with five ring-turned knopped and latched pillars, five wheel trains and small outside countwheel mounted high on the backplate, maintaining power removed, the case with flat top moulded cornice above a carved frieze fret, formerly rising hood, spiral columns, one with finely carved Corinthian capital, the others with replaced metal capitals, two lacking, similarly carved side frets, the trunk with long rectangular door with well carved lenticle and further carved with a mask within leaves and scrolls, the plinth similarly decorated and lacking lower section; carving to the frieze fret, the side frets and the lenticle probably original, the other carving probably later

The Fromanteel family was one of the most prominent in the field of horology during the 17^th century. Although of Dutch stock Ahasuerus Fromanteel, the first clockmaker in the family,  was born at Norwich in 1607 and apprenticed to a clockmaker. In 1631 he moved to London and was admitted to the Blacksmiths’ Company becoming known as a maker of great (i.e.large) clocks. In 1632, only a year after its foundation, he joined the Clockmakers’ Company as a Free Brother.  Ahasuerus Fromanteel died in 1693 having established a dynasty of clockmakers working both in London and Amsterdam. It is likely that all the Fromanteels worked for the  Family firm and that is why many of the clocks made after the death of Ahasuerus were signed just Fromanteel.