John Webb John Webb was a widely respected English architect. He was born in 1611 in Little Britain, Smithfield, London, the son of a gentleman of a Somerset family. He was a pupil of the designer Inigo Jones, who was also his uncle. He later worked as Jones’ assistant, even assisting his uncle with work on St Paul’s Cathedral in London during the 1630s. In 1654, Webb designed the first classical portico on an English country house. In the early 1660s, King Charles II commissioned him to rebuild Greenwich Palace. Only one block of Webb’s design was built, which now forms the eastern part of the King Charles block. The design and detailing of two early Fromanteel clock cases are attributed to him. See the Minerva Fromanteel bracket clock, made around 1664, and the Denton Hall Fromanteel, dated to around 1657. It also possible that Webb influenced the design of the Norfolk Fromanteel's case, made around 1660. Image Credit Royal Naval Hospital, Greenwich, part of the King Charles block, with a scale. Engraving by H. Hulsburgh after C. Campbell, 1715. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark. Source: Wellcome Collection https://wellcomecollection.org/works/crv4q8b8
