Fromanteel & Clarke
A SILVER-GILT PAIR CASED TWO TRAIN CLOCK WATCH CIRCA 1700
LOT SOLD.
8,125 GBP
Details & Cataloguing
The Celebration of the English Watch Part IV, George Daniels 20th Century Innovator
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London
London
Fromanteel & Clarke
A SILVER-GILT PAIR CASED TWO TRAIN CLOCK WATCH CIRCA 1700
• Movement: gilded full plate, verge escapement, decoratively pierced and floral engraved balance cock, a mask at the neck with short streamers, silver locking plate visible to the backplate, plain flat balance, fusee and chain, Egyptian and turned baluster pillars, signed Fromanteel & Clarke
• Dial: silver-gilt champlevé, Roman numerals with half hour divisions between and to the ring beneath, outer Arabic minute ring, the centre with two cartouches flanked by scrolling foliage and signed Fromanteel & Clarke, blued steel beetle and poker hands
• Cases: silver-gilt inner case, the band pierced and engraved with flowers, foliage and birds, a grotesque mask beneath the pendant, the back with winding apertures for going and striking trains, ring bow and pendant • outer silver-gilt case with similar pierced and engraved decoration to bezel and band and with case maker's mark IB with coronet above, probably for John Banbury
diameter of outer case 58mm, inner case 52mm
Read Condition Report
Read Condition Report
• Dial: silver-gilt champlevé, Roman numerals with half hour divisions between and to the ring beneath, outer Arabic minute ring, the centre with two cartouches flanked by scrolling foliage and signed Fromanteel & Clarke, blued steel beetle and poker hands
• Cases: silver-gilt inner case, the band pierced and engraved with flowers, foliage and birds, a grotesque mask beneath the pendant, the back with winding apertures for going and striking trains, ring bow and pendant • outer silver-gilt case with similar pierced and engraved decoration to bezel and band and with case maker's mark IB with coronet above, probably for John Banbury
diameter of outer case 58mm, inner case 52mm
Provenance
The Edward Hornby Collection, Sotheby's London, 1st December 1978, Lot 42
Literature
Terence Camerer Cuss, The English Watch 1585-1970, 2009, p. 137, pl. 68
Catalogue Note
This watch was part of the famous collection of Rare and Important Watches, assembled by Edward Hornby and dispersed at Sotheby’s on 1st December, 1978.
The makers’ signatures are signed to the backplate in capital letters rather than the more traditional script style of signature. By this period, block lettering was beginning to be used by several makers, including Tompion and Banger. Ahasuerus Fromanteel the Younger and Christopher Clarke began a partnership in circa 1680 to form the firm of Fromanteel & Clarke. Fromanteel came from a family of distinguished watch and clockmakers and worked in both London and Amsterdam. He earned his Freedom from the Clockmakers’ Company in 1672. Clarke, a British ex-patriate who resided in Amsterdam, married Fromanteel's daughter in 1694. Clocks and watches signed ‘Fromanteel & Clarke’ were sometimes manufactured in Amsterdam, and sold both there and in London. Their partnership ended in 1703 when Fromanteel died, Clarke continued to work, forming a partnership with Fromanteel's younger brother, Abraham.
Suggested Lots
The Celebration of the English Watch Part IV, George Daniels 20th Century Innovator
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London
London
