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Lot 66
A fine and very rare, dated, late 17th century musical 30 hour longcase clock movement Edward Webb, dated 1693.
11 December 2019, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond StreetSold for £8,812.50 inc. premium
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A fine and very rare, dated, late 17th century musical 30 hour longcase clock movement
Edward Webb, dated 1693.
Surmounted by a large cast bell mounted on an upright iron stand secured by a single finial, the top and bottom plates measuring 5.25 by 7.25 inches and united by four rectangular-section upright pillars on tapering posts, the dial 8.5 inches square with winged-cherubs head spandrels to each corner over simple line decoration, the Roman chapter ring with fancy half-hour markers and inner quarter hour track framing the elaborately engraved centre decorated with a symmetrical pattern of flowers and foliage, with an urn at VI and rose to the centre with single pierced iron hand, the three-train weight driven movement with verge escapement and short pendulum with light bob on a screwed thread, the strike train with outside countwheel operating the vertical hammer, the arbor set with a most unusual sprung rack and pinion, the music activates every three hours, on two, five, eight and eleven o'clock. 39cms (15ins) high
Surmounted by a large cast bell mounted on an upright iron stand secured by a single finial, the top and bottom plates measuring 5.25 by 7.25 inches and united by four rectangular-section upright pillars on tapering posts, the dial 8.5 inches square with winged-cherubs head spandrels to each corner over simple line decoration, the Roman chapter ring with fancy half-hour markers and inner quarter hour track framing the elaborately engraved centre decorated with a symmetrical pattern of flowers and foliage, with an urn at VI and rose to the centre with single pierced iron hand, the three-train weight driven movement with verge escapement and short pendulum with light bob on a screwed thread, the strike train with outside countwheel operating the vertical hammer, the arbor set with a most unusual sprung rack and pinion, the music activates every three hours, on two, five, eight and eleven o'clock. 39cms (15ins) high
Footnotes
Provenance:
This clock has been in the vendor's family since 1972. The lot is accompanied by a hand written receipt for £500 as a deposit in respect of:
"A bracket clock by Steed, London
Brass wall clock by Edward Webb
Brass wall clock by Thos. Brown
2 Wall clocks by Whitehurst of Derby and
3 oak Grandfather clocks"
signed J Davis Ward, Sheffield, October 1972.
The engraved number '93' confirms the date of production as 1693, the year before the maker's death. The Webb family were one of the earliest and notable of the Chew Valley clockmakers; the family established in Chew Stoke from as early as the XIV century as yeoman farmers, but from the middle of the 17th century there were blacksmiths in the family, with evidence of their work in repairing church clocks from at least 1640. The Chew Valley became the most notable clock making centre, about 5 miles out of Bristol, and became very strongly influenced by the Bristol tradition. The early makers of the area including Thomas Veale and the Bilbie family of renowned bell founding and clock making origins, as well as the Webb dynasty. These families, closely connected, and influencing each other under the umbrella of Bristol fashion.
Literature:
Discussed and illustrated in White, G. (1989). English Lantern Clocks. Suffolk: The Antique Collectors' Club, page 232, Figure V/43.
Moore, Rice, Hunter, Bilbie and the Chew Valley Clockmakers,