Miniature Lantern Clock This miniature brass lantern clock was beautifully conceived and skillfully produced by John Knibb, the youngest member of the Knibb family of clockmakers from Oxford.[1] It is a superb and complex example of traditional lantern clock design. Unusually for a lantern clock, it has hour striking and features an alarm – a rare addition. Knibb was just 19 years old when he made this clock. The clock is signed Johannes Knibb Oxon fecit 1669 just below the front special fret. The dating of the clock is rather extraordinary, as surviving lantern clocks are very rarely dated. Also, this clock is one of the very few dated clocks by Knibb that survive. The date of the clock raises some questions, because in 1669 Knibb was still an apprentice to his elder brother Joseph. As an apprentice, he was therefore officially barred by the guild system from selling and signing clocks bearing his signature. Knibb did not receive his official freedom from Oxford until 1673, allowing him to sign and sell his own clocks. This strongly suggests that he never intended to sell this clock, and it is likely that he made it for his own use. There is also the possibility that when this clock was made it was to his financial advantage not to pay the guild fees and to instead remain an apprentice. The standard height of a lantern clock is typically about 15 inches high including the top finial. This exquisite miniature version stands at just under 9 ½ inches (210 mm). It has a short brass pendulum with a pear-shaped bob, along with a vertical verge arbor escapement. Horologist Brian Loomes observes that lantern clocks with this type of movement kept ‘reasonable time, within perhaps two minutes a day or so’ for a duration of up to 30 hours.[2] The clock’s movement has three trains: a going train, an hour striking train, and an alarm train. The going and strike trains are driven by a single weight using Christiaan Huygens’ maintaining power. The clock’s innovative hour striking was controlled by a countwheel on its back. The third train is an alarm train, which is run by a separate driving weight to sound the alarm on the hour bell. It is certainly intriguing to imagine the young clockmaker waking in the morning to the sound of his skillfully engineered alarm going off. The clock’s dial is tastefully and beautifully decorated, engraved with flowerheads in scrolls throughout. Its rotating alarm disc is set within the chapter ring, and the centre of the dial is pierced and engraved with a single flower head. The time is indicated by a single steeled hour hand. The first lantern clocks, made during the first half of the 16oos (such as Robert Harvey’s lantern clock made around 1610) also only had the one hand – an hour hand. This is because they were not accurate enough to merit the addition of a minute hand. These clocks were pre-pendulum, made with a balance wheel escapement. They had only two trains, one for going and one for striking, and required winding every 8–12 hours. By way of comparison, Knibb’s miniature lantern clock was technically superior. It used pendulum technology and Huygens’ maintaining power, ran for 30 hours, and had three trains and an alarm. Yet, the skilled clockmaker adhered to tradition by using just a single hour hand. Knibb also followed convention with the design of his case, a miniature version of the traditional lantern clock four-posted frame case. The front pierced brass fret, just above the dial, even features whimsical engravings of two crossed dolphins. According to Loomes, the dolphin is the most common motif seen in surviving lantern clock frets.[3] End Notes [1] Garnier and Hollis 2018, 227, Catalogue No. 53; Loomes 2013; Taylor 2018, 20, Exhibition No. 53. [2] Loomes 2013. [3] Loomes 2013. References Garnier, R. and L. Hollis. 2018. Innovation & Collaboration: the early development of the pendulum clock in London. Isle of Man: Fromanteel Ltd. Loomes, B. © 2013. ‘Lantern clocks.’ https://www.brianloomes.com/collecting/lanternfaq/index.html Taylor, J. C. 2018. Innovation & Collaboration: Exhibition guide. Isle of Man: Fromanteel Ltd.
