Gilt Cubic Table Clock This is the earliest known English grande sonnerie clock and one of the first to have a minute hand. It is the only known instance of collaboration between Edward East and Ahasuerus Fromanteel. The case of the clock is a work of art, and its movement is a masterpiece in its own right.[1] This is also an experimental clock, as the minute hand rotates just once every three hours. Thus, the hour is indicated in the hour ring, and the minutes are indicated on the outer minute ring. Can you tell the time now? The gilt brass case is cubic. Mounted along the length of each corner are two silver caryatids, comprising eight in total. The caryatids are similar to Inigo Jones’ design for the Queen’s House that dates to around 1637. Fine engravings decorate each of the four sides of the case. Each features an arch, and within each arch is an engraving of single female figure dressed for one of the four seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter. When Peter Gwynn added this clock to his collection in 1975, he and Ronald A Lee thought the engravings were taken from Wenceslaus Hollar’s Theatrum Mulierum made around 1643.[2] Within Gwynn’s records is a note on Victoria and Albert Museum headed paper dated 4 June 1976 that reads:- Dear Peter, John Nevinson says that the engravings on your clock are definitely not from Hollar’s Theatrum Mulierum. Unfortunately he could not identify the source… In November 2010, horologist and collector, Dr John C Taylor, purchased a set of the engravings from Hollar’s Theatrum Mulierum; he compared these prints to the clock engravings and could find no similarity either. However, he later found a CD offered for sale that contained a wider selection of Hollar engravings. He again compared each and every Holler print, several of which were examples of pictures of ladies in spring, summer, autumn and winter costumes. One print, signed ‘Wenceslas Hollar 1639’ shows the lady accessorised with a nose guard, large hand muff and waist-hung matching purse, and dressed in a full-length fur coat – all virtually identical to features of the winter lady engraving on the clock. With the superlative quality of all the engraving on the clock, Dr Taylor believes that it is more than just likely that the whole of the engraving on all six of the cubic clock’s faces were engraved around 1640 by the master engraver Wenceslaus Hollar himself, shortly after producing the print. The design for the arch framing of the depicted ladies stems from Cardinal Spada’s palazzo, where in 1632 the architect Francesco Borromini produced a masterpiece of false perspective by creating the optical illusion of a long arched passageway with a statue in a garden. The passageway appeared over four times as long as it actually was in reality, and the result was famous throughout Europe in the mid to late 1630s. The silver dial is sumptuously designed with a gilt-engraved outer border. Engraved in the corners are four winged cherub heads, each unique. The silver dial is pierced and engraved with floral scrolls. The pierced brass hands are replacements. The chapter ring is divided into the 1-60 range three times and is marked every five minutes; the minute hand therefore takes three hours to make one revolution around the chapter ring. Thus, telling time to the minute on this clock required close consultation of the dial and could not be achieved with a cursory glance. This design is a reminder that the familiar one-hour revolution of the minute hand around the chapter ring had yet to be thought through and standardised when this clock was made. The fact that the minute divisions on the dial are divided into three sets of 60 indicates that this clock was amongst the earliest clocks to be made with two hands. By complete contrast, on the later Clifton Fromanteel longcase, the minute hand revolves four times every hour, so the chapter ring is engraved with 1 to 15 minutes and divided to show five second divisions – again, difficult to read the time on this clock when viewed across a room! The movement, with its gilded brasswork, is exquisite, and its steelwork retains much of its original blueing. It comprises of four tiers. The tier below the dial houses part of the quarter-striking mechanism, including the bell. The next tier contains the going train and fusee, the verge, and the quarter-striking train. The very narrow tier between the going and striking trains is occupied by the balance wheel and regulator control. The bottom tier contains the hour-striking train and fusee. The hour striking work strikes 312 blows every 12 hours to deliver grande sonnerie striking. It is unclear exactly how a spring capable of running grande sonnerie striking was manufactured at such an early date; it was an astonishing feat of design. The four pillars to each frame are secured by pins. The polished steel hammer, mounted between cocks on the bottom plate, is shaped and engraved in the form of a grotesque beast. The hammer strikes the hour bell, which is mounted in the base of the clock. The clock is wound from the bottom. Why East and Fromanteel worked together on this job is a mystery, as are the particulars of their business arrangement and the nature of their professional relationship. There seems to be consensus among horologists that Fromanteel oversaw the making of the movement, but East’s role in the clock’s making is less clear. The way in which the signatures were engraved may provide some insight. East’s name was engraved before the movement was gilded, while Fromanteel’s signature, which includes ‘fecit’, pierces the gilding and was engraved after. Percy Dawson and Dr John C. Taylor agree that Fromanteel’s use of the word fecit lays claim to the making of the movement, a movement that is typical of Fromanteel’s work. They also agree that East’s signature suggests that he wished to claim credit for the whole of the clock. Some have conjectured that the signatures were engraved as they were because the two makers began to work on the clock together and fell out – a tantalising scenario for which there is no further direct evidence. Dawson argues that East was probably responsible for the decorative work on the case and observes that ‘the piercing of the dial follows closely that on watches signed by him’. However, Taylor thinks that East probably had nothing to do with the making of the clock and offers a more plausible scenario for why East felt comfortable signing it. At the time, East was Master of the Clockmakers’ Company while Fromanteel was not yet a Free Brother, and was thus officially unable to sign his own work. East perhaps exploited his status as the Master of the Company and signed the clock as he did because he could, while Fromanteel was debarred from taking credit for his work in that way. However, around 1656, Oliver Cromwell bought a clock from Fromanteel for £300 and intervened with the Clockmakers’ Company to force them to promote Fromanteel as a Free Brother. When the clock was returned to Fromanteel for service, he then engraved his own signature by cutting through the gilding. An interesting contretemps between Thomas Tompion and his partner, Edward Bangor, produced the opposite result. After they parted acrimoniously, on every clock signed Tompion and Bangor that was later returned to Tompion to be serviced, Tompion tried to erase Banger’s involvement from history by installing a silvered plaque engraved Thomas Tompion London, thereby hiding their joint signatures. End Notes [1] Clutton 1955, 132; Darken 2003, 22–25; Dawson et al. 1994, 38–41; Garnier and Hollis 2018, 138–141; Lee 1978; Taylor et al. 2019, 23, Exhibit No. 3:6. [2] Wenceslaus (or Wenzel) Hollar (b. 1607, d. 1677) was an Anglo-Czech artist, and one of the greatest and most prolific printmakers of the 1600s. His Theatrum Mulierum was published around 1643 and is a descriptive catalogue of his etched work. It survives in piecemeal, with its different prints represented in isolation within various collections, such as its Title Page, which is housed in the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC (Accession Number 1943.3.4959), and the print Nobilis Mulier Brabantica (Noblewoman from Brabant) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (Accession Number: 24.57.17). References Clutton, C. 1955. ‘Five centuries of British timekeeping’ in Antiquarian Horology I/9: 128–132. Darken, J. (editor). 2003. Horological Masterworks: English 17th century clocks from private collections. London: Antiquarian Horological Society. Dawson, P. G., C. B. Drover and D. W. Parkes. 1994 [1982]. Early English Clocks: A discussion of domestic clocks up to the beginning of the eighteenth century. Woodbridge: The Antique Collectors’ Club. Garnier, R. and L. Hollis. 2018. Innovation & Collaboration: The early development of the pendulum clock in London. Isle of Man: Fromanteel Ltd. Lee, R. A. 1978. ‘Early pendulum clocks’ in Antiquarian Horology Winter, 146–147. Taylor, J. C. and K. Leith (with contributions by T Phillipson). 2019. The Luxury of Time: Clocks from 1550-1750. Isle of Man: Fromanteel Ltd.
