PROVINCIAL CLOCKS
Their character--Names of clockmakers found on clocks
in the provinces--The North of England: Newcastle-upon-
Tyne--Yorkshire clockmakers: Halifax and the district--Liverpool
and the district--The Midlands--The Home Counties--The West
Country--Miscellaneous makers.
A great deal of attention has been paid by collectors to clocks by
well-known London makers and too little examination has been given to
fine examples by those of the provinces. In the present chapter an
attempt is made to fill a hiatus in this respect, and by the kindness
of those interested in the various localities certain data are
presented which may stimulate the student to continue his researches on
the lines here indicated.
The metropolis attracted noteworthy makers, but they had their origin
and often their early training in the provinces.
The following are among the great London clockmakers, but they were
not Londoners. They come from all parts of the country. Joseph Knibb
(about 1670) was an Oxfordshire man. The famous Thomas Tompion,
born in 1638, came from Bedfordshire. George Graham (1673-1751)
tramped to London from Cumberland. Thomas Earnshaw, who perfected the
marine chronometer, his additions being still in use, was born at
Ashton-under-Lyne in 1750 and served his apprenticeship there. Henry
Jones, who was the pupil of Edward East, was the son of a vicar at
Southampton. Charles II had a clock made by him. Thomas Mudge was
the son of a schoolmaster and was born at Exeter in 1715. Another
Exeter man was Jacob Lovelace, who took over thirty years to construct
a remarkable clock. The celebrated John Harrison was the son of a
carpenter on an estate at Pontefract. It was he who competed for the
Government gratuity offered for a nautical timekeeper, for which he
finally received £10,000, after repeated tests in voyages to the West
Indies by himself and his son. We think of his early struggles, when he
travelled up to London after he was forty, only to find that he had to
return to the provinces and continue his vocation as clock-mender in
ordinary and inventor extraordinary. There is a long-case clock with
wooden wheels and pinions by him in the Guildhall Museum, London.
The list is by no means complete. There was John Ellicott, who was born
at Bodmin, and another Cornishman from the same town is John Arnold,
who was apprenticed to his father, a watchmaker there. Arnold continued
what Harrison had begun in the chronometer. We must not exclude the
great Dr. Hooke, who was born at Freshwater, Isle of Wight, who
invented the anchor escapement for clocks and contested the invention
of the balance spring in watches with Huygens.
=Names of Clockmakers found on Clocks in the Provinces.=--It has
been suggested that in some cases the name of a local maker does not
necessarily determine, when found on the dial or elsewhere, that such
clock has been made by the person whose name it bears. It has also been
advanced that the name of the owner was sometimes put on the dial.
This last theory can be dismissed as being of so infrequent use as
to be practically negligible in recording lists of makers. The other
conjecture may possibly have sufficient truth in it to disconcert
collectors of examples of local crafts. Of course, it is a statement
that cannot be proved, nor can it be disproved. Presumably a clockmaker
in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, when clockmaking was
something more than selling or mending clocks that other people made,
did not deliberately set up business and, in a small town where secrecy
was impossible, make a practice of putting his name on work he did not
execute. That he did not make all the parts himself is admitted. Had
he done so, he would have had to be a chain-maker or a catgut-maker, a
pulley-maker, a chaser of metal for his dials, a cabinet-maker for his
cases, and so on down to his most minute screws. One might as well take
similar objection to Sir Joshua Reynolds or Gainsborough that they did
not extract their pigments from the natural vegetables or minerals,
that they neglected to become proficient in manipulating hogs'
bristles or camel-hair into brushes, or that they could not and did not
make their own canvases or carve their own frames.
It did happen that an old clock by one maker was sent to another for
repair, and he made such extensive repairs to the movement that he
felt himself justified in putting his own name to the clock in its new
state. The owner would have had something to say to this interchange
of names had there not been some justification for it. This practice,
however, is not confined to the provinces, and we cannot charge the
provincial maker with being wholly unscrupulous.
Some purists in collecting have objected to the presence of a country
maker's name stencilled on the dial, as being evidence it was not his
handiwork. But this is not in itself a crime. It is far more likely
that such a clock is of local make, and that being in a remote part it
was not easy to get anyone to paint his name on the dial or engrave
it. Had he had it made to order in a town surely his name would have
been painted for him. In a measure, crudities of this nature and
peculiarities not found in clocks from the great centres are hallmarks
of genuineness.
At the time of the passing of the Act in 1797 relating to the taxation
of clocks and watches, the following places sent representatives to
London to protest against this tax:--
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Liverpool, Leicester, Derby, Bristol, Prescot,
Coventry, and Edinburgh. Of these, Prescot (a few miles from
Liverpool) and Coventry represented the watch industry. We may
therefore fairly conclude that the other places represent the most
noteworthy centres of clockmaking at that period.
=The North of England: Newcastle-upon-Tyne.=--In regard to provincial
makers, one wonders what 'prentice hands have gone to the making of the
long cases. Did Thomas Chippendale, when he was working at his father's
bench at Worcester, execute any of his early joinery and carving to
embellish now forgotten clocks? Who can say? At Newcastle-upon-Tyne
we are on surer foundation, for it is on record that Thomas Bewick,
the wood-engraver, was apprenticed to Ralph Beilby, an engraver at
Newcastle, on 1st October 1767 for seven years. His master's business
lay in engraving crests and initials on watch seals, teaspoons,
sugar-tongs, and other pieces of plate, and the numerals and ornaments
on clock dials, together with the maker's name. Here, then, was young
Bewick's 'prentice work--the master of white line on the wood block.
Later, Bewick confessed to a friend that when engraving these clock
dials his hands grew as hard as a blacksmith's, and almost disgusted
him with engraving. At any rate, there is the strong probability that
such Newcastle dials engraved by Thomas Bewick are on clocks of the
date from 1763 to 1774.
The following list of names of Newcastle and other clockmakers in the
North of England is produced by the kindness of C. Leo Reid, Esq., of
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and by the permission of the proprietors of the
_Newcastle Weekly Chronicle_, compiled from notes appearing in that
valuable repository of North-country antiquities.
The makers are of Newcastle, unless otherwise stated. The list is
arranged alphabetically.
John Airey (Hexham), 1790-95.
Jas. Atkinson (Gateshead), 1770-77.
Joseph Atkinson (Gateshead), 1790-1804.
Beilly and Hawthorn, 1780.
William Berry (Gateshead), 1810.
Thomas Bell, 1785.
John Bolton (Chester-le-Street), 1812; (Durham), 1812-21.
S. Boverick, 1765.
William Coventry, 1778.
William Featherstone, 1790-95.
William Fenton, 1778.
William Foggin, 1833 (clock-dial maker).
Gibson, 1750.
John Greaves, 1780-95.
Thomas Greaves, 1778-95.
John Harrison, 1790-95.
John Hawthorn, 1780.
W. Heron, 1790.
Geo. Hidspeth, 1800.
J. Hutchinson, 1811.
Matt. Kirkup, 1811.
Jos. Ledgard, 1707-32.
Richard Marshall (Wolsingham), 1796.
Geo. Miller (Gateshead), 1770.
Sam Ogden, 1760-70.
Ord (Hexham), 1797.
Jno. Peacock, 1800.
John Rawson, 1790.
Wm. Rawson, 1790.
{ Christian Ker Reid, 1778-1834.
{ St. Nicholas Churchyard, close to workshop of Thomas Bewick.
{ Reid and Son, 1817.
{ Reid and Sons, 1845 to present day.
Henry Sanders (Gateshead), 1800.
John Scott (Sandgate), 1790-95.
Thomas Smoult, 1790.
{ Hugh Stockell, 1790.
{ Stockell and Stuart, 1798.
{ Hugh Stockell, 1800.
Archibald Strachan, 1790.
William Tickle, sen., 1790-95.
William Tickle, jun., 1790-95.
J. H. Wakefield (Gateshead), 1800.
John Wakefield (Lamesley), 1827.
Ward, 1811.
Michael Watson, 1811-27.
Thomas Weatherley (Berwick-on-Tweed), 1790-95.
John Weatherston, 1790-95.
John Wilson, 1782-90.
Richard Young, 1811.
In regard to the remarks about Thomas Bewick and clock dials, there is
every likelihood that his 'prentice work in engraving them between
1763 and 1774 is to be found on clocks by S. Boverick, William
Coventry, William Fenton, Gibson, John Hawthorn, John Wilson, and
Christian K. Reid; the latter maker certainly knew Bewick. The dates
given in the above list do not definitely represent that the maker's
work was confined to that period exclusively. They are approximate
dates.
=Yorkshire Clockmakers: Halifax and the District.=--We have already
seen that John Harrison, the great self-taught genius, born in 1683,
was a Yorkshireman. Of early makers there is a record of John Ogden,
of Bowrigg, of the late seventeenth century, and Samuel Ogden, born at
Sowerby in 1669. The name of Ogden is found on many Yorkshire clocks.
Thomas Ogden came to Halifax; although the Ogdens seem to have been a
Quaker family, one of his clocks is in the Unitarian Chapel vestry. The
Ogden type of dial with the phases of the moon, although not original,
being adapted from Dutch models, became noteworthy in the North of
England, and such styles were termed "Halifax" clocks. Samuel Ogden,
a descendant, migrated to Newcastle-upon-Tyne (see list, p. 216),
perpetuating the name a hundred years after.
In Halifax parish churchyard is a tombstone to the memory of R.
Duckworth, clockmaker, 1677.
John Mason was a maker about 1760, and his father, Timothy Mason, was
a clockmaker before him. At Rotherham some years ago there were some
Mason clocks on exhibition, and there were eight generations of Masons
as clockmakers, the later branch having settled at Rotherham. Such is
the record of many provincial makers.
Emanuel Hopperton, of Leeds, made clocks with marquetry cases. One bore
the proud motto, _Non mihi sed mundo._
Henry Brownhill, of Briggate, Leeds, watchmaker and clockmaker, was
sufficiently prosperous to issue several tons of halfpenny copper
tokens in 1793. By the courtesy of S. H. Hamer, Esq., of Halifax, an
illustration of one of these tokens is given.
[Illustration: HALFPENNY, 1793.]
This was the year when the Reign of Terror began and when Marie
Antoinette was executed. In England great commercial distress was felt.
Banks issued notes in excess of their capital. Gold was scarce, and the
Bank of England restricted its issues. A panic ensued and several banks
failed. Pitt issued Exchequer Bills to the extent of five millions.
Other local clockmakers are Thomas Liston, of Luddenden, 1718-79,
and his son Thomas, of Halifax, 1745-1815. It is reported that this
latter Thomas Lister travelled by coach from Halifax to London to
regulate and keep in order the clock at St. Paul's Cathedral. There is
an orrery by him in the Glasgow University Museum.
[Illustration: LONG CASE CLOCK.
Maker, Gilbert Chippindale (Halifax).
ENLARGEMENT OF HOOD.
Showing fine fretwork and maker's name in lunette.
(_By courtesy of Surgeon-Major W. Savile Henderson._)]
[Illustration: LONG-CASE EIGHT-DAY CLOCK.
Maker, John Weatherilt (Liverpool).
Date, 1780-85.
(_Reproduced by courtesy of George H. Hewitt, Esq., J.P._)]
William Lister is another member of the same family who made long-case
clocks. In his dials a noticeable feature is the absence of the hour
circle as being separate from the rest of the plate. The dial was made
in one piece and attached to a back-plate of brass.
Pattison, another Yorkshire maker, made long-case clocks similar to
those of William Lister.
John Hartley, of Halifax, about 1770, was the maker of a thirty-hour
grandfather clock in oak case with brass square dial and moon and date
lunettes. Titus Bancroft, of Sowerby Bridge, 1822, a church-clock
maker, also made grandfather clocks.
John Hallifax, of Barnsley, who died in 1750, made a fine long-case
clock now at Wentworth House.
Gilbert Chippindale, of Halifax, 1781, is another maker of fine clocks.
A fine example of his work is illustrated (p. 219).
R. Henderson, of Scarborough, early eighteenth century, is another
Yorkshire maker. Richard Midgley, 1720-40, of Halifax, made a number of
clocks still treasured locally. Samuel Pearson is known about 1790, and
John Stancliffe, of Bark-island, is another local maker.
Collectors have too frequently associated Yorkshire clocks with the
later periods, with ponderous cases of gigantic size, but, as is
shown, the Yorkshire makers are worthy of considerable attention by
connoisseurs as having a lineage extending back into the periods when
clockmaking was at its best, and when the case-maker was not such a
preponderating factor as he seems to have been in the early nineteenth
century days in the North.
=Liverpool and the District.=--In regard to Liverpool and the vicinity,
at the Tercentenary Historical Exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery
in 1907 a collection of clocks and watches was made to illustrate the
art of the clockmaker in that part of the country. By the kindness
of George H. Hewitt, Esq., J.P., who arranged these exhibits, we are
enabled to supply the names of many of the Liverpool clockmakers.
Peter Litherland patented the rack lever escapement in 1793-4 which
Robert Roskell, the Liverpool maker, introduced into his watches. At
the above Exhibition was shown a pendulum watch by George Taylor, about
1700, and one by William Tarleton, 1797, with the Government stamp
indicating that the tax of a guinea had been paid. This was in 1797,
the first and only year when a tax on watches and clocks was levied.
One remembers the fine portrait of Colonel Tarleton in uniform, with
one foot on a cannon, after the portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds, signed
I. Johnson, on a Liverpool mug. He was the Member of Parliament for
Liverpool from 1790 to 1812. This family gave the name to Tarleton
Street, Liverpool.
That Liverpool and the district was renowned for its watches is shown
by a silver watch made by Thomas Worsley, Liverpool, inscribed,
"Presented to Robert Burns by his brother ploughmen of Air (_sic_)
March 9, 1785." Among other makers at Liverpool whose names are found
on watches are Fair-clough (about 1800), Edmonds (about 1770), Joseph
Finney (about 1770), Robert Roskell (about 1800), M. J. Tobias & Co.
(1820), Harrington (1790), Peter Hope (1795), J. Johnson (1796).
[Illustration: LONG-CASE EIGHT-DAY CLOCK.
Maker, Thurston Lassell (Toxteth Park, Liverpool).
Date, about 1745.
(_Reproduced by courtesy of George H. Hewitt, Esq., J.P._)]
[Illustration: LONG-CASE MAHOGANY EIGHT-DAY CLOCK.
Maker, Henry Higginbotham (Macclesfield).
The Gothic panel in door is a noticeable feature.
(_By courtesy of A. Bromley Sanders, Esq., Exeter._)]
It is possible that some of these makers also made long-case and
other clocks; we find the name of Roskell on a long-case clock and R.
Roskell on another. Presumably this was the Robert Roskell who used
the Litherland rack-lever watch escapement. Joseph Finney also made
long-case clocks. Other makers' names found on Liverpool clocks are
Burges, Aspinall (with the motto, "Time is valuable"), Jno. Weatherilt.
This clock is illustrated (p. 221). It indicates by the character of
its marquetry in the panel of the door and in the base that it belongs
to the second period of marquetry contemporary with the influence of
Sheraton. In the lunette the phases of the moon are shown. The date of
this is about 1780 to 1785. Another clock, illustrated on p. 225, is
by Thurston Lassell, Toxteth Park, Liverpool. This in date is about
1745. The phases of the moon are shown in the lunette. The case is of
more slender proportions than its fellow. The hood exhibits a reticence
which was lost in later examples, especially in provincial work made in
Yorkshire, where the case became of unwieldy size and somewhat ungainly
shape.
Other names of Liverpool makers found on long-case clocks are William
Sutton, Harrison & Son, Jas. Canson, Thomas Saxon, Jo^n Taylor
(Ormskirk), W. Lassell, Toxteth Park, Liverpool, with motto, "Time
shows the Way of Life's Decay," with brass face, lunar movement, and
monthly dial with indicator. (This style of dial is a feature of a
Shropshire clock illustrated p. 249.) Brown, Liverpool, is found on
a mahogany long-case clock and also on a small long-case clock. To
those who are interested the portrait in oils of Peter Litherland, the
inventor of the rack lever, who died in 1804, is in the possession of
the Corporation of Liverpool.
Among other Lancashire makers the following are noteworthy: T. Lees
(Bury), 1795-1800; Archibald Coats (Wigan), 1780; Barr (Bolton), 1790;
James Barlow (Oldham), 1775; Benjamin Barlow (Ashton-under-Lyne), 1780;
and Nathaniel Brown (Manchester), 1780-1785.
In Westmorland and Cumberland the names Burton, of Kendal, and Russell,
of Carlisle, are often found on grandfather clocks of local manufacture
of the late eighteenth century.
In regard to a particular style of case associated with Lancashire and
with Cheshire, having the door decorated with panel in Gothic style,
two examples are illustrated (p. 227), one by Henry Higginbotham
(Macclesfield), and the other by Heywood, Northwich, 1790 (p. 231).
[Illustration: LONG-CASE MAHOGANY EIGHT-DAY CLOCK.
Maker, Heywood (Northwich, Cheshire). 1790.
The Gothic panel in door is a noticeable feature.
(_By courtesy of Messrs. A. B. Daniell & Sons._)]
[Illustration: LONG-CASE EIGHT-DAY CLOCK.
With dial showing days of month. Oak case veneered in mahogany.
Maker, Thomas Wall (Birmingham). Date, about 1795.
(_In possession of author._)]
=Clockmakers of the Midlands.=--As typical of the fine work produced,
the bracket clock by Sam Watson, of Coventry, 1687, illustrated (p.
181), shows that the provincial maker was at that date in no way on a
lower plane than his contemporary in London. Other makers are Wilson
(Warwick), 1709; John Whitehurst (Derby), 1785--a fine long-case
clock by this maker is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; W.
Francis (Birmingham), and Thomas Wall (Birmingham), 1798. An example
by this maker is illustrated (p. 233), exhibiting a pastoral scene
painted in the lunette of the dial. This clock--in the possession of
the author--keeps excellent time although 120 years old, and has gone
for ten years without stopping.
Of Nottingham makers, the following names of early craftsmen are found
on watches: Isaac Alexander, about 1760 (a watch, gold inner case,
white dial; outer case of shagreen, with portrait of Charles Stuart
by J. June, 1745), and Thomas Hudson, about 1790 (silver, white dial;
outer case of tortoiseshell, with silver mounts). The name of Hen.
Page, Upper Broughton (Notts), is found on a brass clock, and John
Kirk was a maker at Epperstone and Skegby before he came to London in
1677 and was admitted as a member of the Clockmakers' Company. Among
the collection of watches at Nottingham Museum, apart from the two
above-mentioned, are a good many by makers of a later date, mainly of
the early nineteenth century: John Lingford, A. Shepperley, William
Young--all of Nottingham, and Geo. Stacey, Worksop.
Among the other watches on exhibition are an early one by Robert Dent
(Lincoln), No. 61, and a watch with gold case with chased _repoussé_
figures and ornament by J. Windmills, the celebrated London maker,
1671-1700.
This short list of Midland makers is obviously incomplete, and it is
to be hoped that some painstaking horologists will amplify it and do
honour to the makers and to the counties concerned.
=The Home Counties.=--Thomas Tompion (1671-1713), the famous London
maker, commenced at Bedford and ended at Bath. We have seen a brass
lantern clock engraved "Thos. Tonkink de Bedforde." This might very
well be one of his early clocks, and we know his great last triumph in
the famous long-case clock in the Pump Room at Bath. But apart from
this incidental connection of the "father of English watchmaking" with
the provinces, there stands Joseph Knibb, of Oxon, who was admitted to
the Clockmakers' Company of London in 1677. He worked in London for
the Court of Charles II. But he was established in Oxfordshire, as is
shown by the copper token he issued, with inscription "Joseph Knibb
Clockmaker in Oxon," and on reverse the dial of a clock with initials
I.K. in centre. We give an illustration of this token.
[Illustration]
A long-case eight-day clock finely decorated in marquetry, in date
about 1690, is illustrated (p. 237). This exhibits the work of Knibb
as being equal, as his employment at the Court shows, to the leading
London makers of his day. In the chapter on Marquetry, p. 79, will be
found a notice of this clock in regard to its relation to other
styles of marquetry, and its place in the sequence there described.
[Illustration: LONG-CASE EIGHT-DAY CLOCK.
Decorated in marquetry.
Maker, Joseph Knibb (Oxon). Date about 1690.]
[Illustration: GEORGIAN SPANISH MAHOGANY LONG-CASE CLOCK.
Hood enriched with fretwork in Chinese style of Chippendale. Terminals
of carved mahogany.
Maker, Cockey (Warminster).
(_By courtesy of Messrs. D. Sherratt & Co., Chester._)]
A fine bracket clock by Joseph Knibb, in date about 1690, is
illustrated (p. 181). This is of the same period as the long-case
clock, the year when William of Orange defeated James II at the battle
of the Boyne, and James, the last of the Stuarts, fled into France.
It is possible that the fortunes of Joseph Knibb were bound up with
Whitehall. At the Revolution in 1689 our Court clockmaker no doubt
retreated into Oxfordshire to continue his creations which we now know.
A cloud of unpaid debts must have hung over him, for the Stuarts were
bad paymasters.
=The West Country.=--In publishing lists of clockmakers collected
by local antiquaries, a loyal service has been rendered to the West
Country by the _Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries_. The following
list is based on the researches published in that journal by R.
Pearse-Chope, Esq.,[4] and by H. Tapley-Soper, Esq.[5]
Balle, John (Exeter).
Bickle, R. H. (Bishop's Nympton).
Bradford (Tiverton).
Bradford (Drayford).
Braund, John (Hatherleigh).
Brayley and Street (Bridgwater).
Bucknell, Jas. (Crediton).
Chamberlain, Hen. (Tiverton).
Chasty, Robert (Hatherleigh).
Chasty, William (Teignmouth).
Day, Christopher (South Molton).
Drake, R. (Beaminster).
Eastcott, Richard (Exon).
Edward, Clement, c. 1671.
Ezekiel (Exon), c. 1794.
Follet (Sidmouth).
Foster, James (Ashburton).
Fox, John (Alverton).
Gard, Henry (Exeter).
Gard, William (Exeter).
Gaydon, J. (Barnstaple).
Gould (Bishop's Nympton).
Gould, G. (South Molton).
Harding, Charles (Sidmouth).
Harner (Membury).
Hayward, Peter (Crediton), _c._ 1766.
Howard, Wm., 1760.
Hutchins, William (Cullompton).
Huxtable (Chittlehampton).
Huxtable, E. (South Molton).
Jacobs, A. (Torquay).
Jonas, Saml. (Exon), 1783.
Keffutt, Walter (Exon).
Lord, John (Farringdon).
Lovelace, Jacob (Exeter), died 1766.
Mallett, Peter, 1705.
Mallett, John (Barnstaple), 1840.
March, R. (Honiton).
Otercey, John (Torrington).
Passmore, R. (Barnstaple).
Pile, Fra. (Honiton).
Pollard (Crediton), 1760.
Pollard, Thomas (Exeter).
Price (Wiveliscombe).
Rew, Joseph (Wiveliscombe).
Routledge, George (Lydford), died 1801.
(Epitaph Lydford Churchyard.)
Sanderson, Geo. (Exeter).
(Maker and patentee of tools for duplicating parts of watches,
1761.)
Scoble, John S. (Colyton).
Simons, A. (Bideford).
Skinner (Exon).
Snell, E. (Barnstaple).
Stocker (Honiton).
Strowbridge (Dawlish).
Stumbel (Totnes).
Thorn (South Molton).
Thorne, Sim (Tiverton), 1740.
Thorne, Michl. (South Molton).
Tickle, John (Crediton), 1730.
Upjohn, Richard (Exon).
(Long-case clock, _c._ 1730.)
Upjohn, Wm. (Exeter), 1741.
Upjohn, Peter (Bideford).
(Watch, 1780.)
Weller, Geo. (Exon).
Wood, I. (Exon).
Waldron, John (Tiverton).
Dates from church registers, family Bibles, old wills, marriage
records, and old newspapers to amplify local lists such as this
add greatly to their value in establishing period of clock.
[4] 1912-13, p. 242.
[5] 1914-15, pp. 204, 205; and July 1917.
Jacob Lovelace, of Exeter, who died in 1766, was the maker of a
remarkable clock of most elaborate nature, with organ that played,
and a series of moving figures striking the hours, and bellringers
and other intricate diversions. This clock was exhibited at the
International Exhibition in 1851, and is now at the Liverpool Museum.
A fine long-case clock in Chippendale style by Cockey, of Warminster,
is illustrated (p. 239), and exhibits provincial work both in case and
movement of the highest character.
[Illustration: BRASS DIAL OF CLOCK.
By Shenkyn Shon (Blackcock Inn, Pontnedd Fechan).
1714.
(_At National Museum of Wales, Cardiff._)]
[Illustration: IRON DIAL OF THIRTY-HOUR CLOCK.
Single hand and alarum. Mid-eighteenth century. Ornamented with designs
of various phases of Sussex iron industry.
Maker, Beeching (Ashburnham).
(_From the collection of J. C. Dawson, Esq., F.S.A._)]
[Illustration: LONG-CASE CLOCK WITH RARE OVAL DIAL.
Subsidiary seconds and calendar dials. Blue painted decoration, under
glass, in spandrels above dial. Fine carved work in oval frame.
Maker, Marston (Salop). Brass plate on door dated 1761.
(_By courtesy of Walter Idris, Esq._)]
Strowbridge, of Dawlish, is the maker of a bracket clock, in date about
1805, showing pleasing work in the fine marquetry decoration introduced
by Sheraton (illustrated p. 201). There is an instance on record of a
clock being sent to "Mr. Strowbridge" for repair. "When it came back
his name, 'H. Strowbridge, Dawlish,' was engraved upon the dial."
=Miscellaneous Makers--East Anglia.=--Several makers are connected with
Yarmouth. There is Thomas Utting (Yarmouth), and we have seen a fine
long-case clock signed thus, and there is Isaac Johnson (Yarmouth), who
apparently made wall clocks. John Page, of Ipswich, is the maker of a
very handsome bracket clock, in date about 1740 (illustrated p. 187).
The name of Henry Terold, Ipswich, is found on a round silver watch
with chased interlacing bands and silver dial, of seventeenth-century
period. Joseph Chamberlain, of Norwich, is a name found on a late
seventeenth-century watch. The names of Mann and Jon. Nevill, both of
Norwich, are found on late eighteenth-century grandfather clocks.
=Kent and Sussex.=--The name of William Gill or Gilt, of Maidstone,
is found on a fine long-case clock of the eighteenth century.
William Gardner, of Sandwich, and Joseph Carswell, of Hastings, are
other names found on grandfather clocks of the latter part of the
eighteenth century. The dial of a clock by a Sussex maker, Beeching,
of Ashburnham, from a thirty-hour clock with single hand and alarum
(illustrated p. 243), is of mid-eighteenth century period, and shows in
its decorations the various phases of the iron industry carried on at
Ashburnham.
=Welsh Clocks.=--At the Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Cymru, at Cardiff, the
National Museum of the Principality, there is a long-case clock by B.
C. Vaughan, of Pontypool, and a brass block with movement by "Shenkyn
Shon, Black Cock Inn, Pontnedd Fechan, 1714," and also there exhibited
are the works of the old clock from St. David's Cathedral.
Illustrated on p. 245 is a unique long-case clock with brass plate on
door, with date 1761, with dragon above. The particular feature of
especial interest in this clock is its oval dial (which is separately
illustrated, p. 249). This dial is enamelled white, and has a medallion
at top representing the figure of Hope with an anchor. The other
decoration is interesting as exhibiting the attempt of the provincial
maker to simulate in pigment the marquetry work of the Sheraton school,
the design being similar to that found on tea-caddies, no doubt well
known to the painter of the dial. There are two subsidiary dials, one
for seconds and the other showing the days of the month.
[Illustration: DIAL OF CLOCK ILLUSTRATED P. 245.
This oval form is rare. The Sheraton type of decoration painted on dial
is a noticeable feature. The panel is reminiscent of Pergolesi. The
lower dial indicates the days of month.]
[Illustration: DIAL OF CLOCK ILLUSTRATED P. 233.
Lunette painted with figure subject of woman and pitcher at stream.
Spandrels decorated with roses in red and gold.]
Although the maker's name is "Marston (Salop)" there is an especially
Welsh interest attaching to this clock. It once was in the possession
of Daniel Owen, the famous Welsh novelist, who is buried in Mold
churchyard, and whose monument is in the County Hall Field at Mold. He
introduced this clock into his novel, _Rhys Lewis_. The grandmother of
the youthful hero of the story had gone to the fair; in her absence
the boy took this clock to pieces, so the story goes. But as the
hours wore on he found it was easier to take it to pieces than to
put it together again. The scene on the return of his grandmother is
piquantly described. The clock-work ran like a thing demented, and
the tell-tale hands revealed the secret of the culprit, who uneasily
fingered a missing wheel in his pocket, and he had forgotten to put on
the pendulum.
The hood of the clock is of original decoration. The upper spandrels
have a blue-and-gold floral design, covered with glass. The two lower
spandrels are delicately carved. The frame around the oval dial is of
beaded work cut in broad and effective style.
Altogether this clock possesses features appealing to collectors. The
provincial maker followed his own lines, and has in so doing produced
something unique.
* * * * *
In conclusion, some apology should be made for an attempt to sketch
in makers of repute, scattered over so wide an area, which resulted
in a mere outline. The meagre lists may in many cases be said to be
noteworthy for their omissions. But want of space has precluded the
writer from pursuing the subject further, and he may be permitted to
express a hope that the perusal of these facts may stimulate local
efforts to worthier records.