AHASUERUS FROMANTEEL, LONDON: A CHARLES II EBONY VENEERED AND EBONISED GILT BRONZE MOUNTED VERY EARLY LONGCASE CLOCK

Details

AHASUERUS FROMANTEEL, LONDON: A CHARLES II EBONY VENEERED AND EBONISED GILT BRONZE MOUNTED VERY EARLY LONGCASE CLOCK
circa 1665-70
The convex moulded ebonised narrow trunk with plinth on bun feet, gilt bronze eagle head escutcheon to rectangular trunk door with three raised panels and hung directly onto the sides of the case, the shaped panel of strapwork carving below the architectural ebony veneered rising hood with spoon and clip, ormolu cartouche applied to the tympanum of the pediment, well cast ribbon tied foliate and acanthus mount above the dial flanked by Corinthian capped applied columns above inverted acorn finials, the latched 8¼in. square dial signed A. Fromanteel Londini fecit below the slender silvered chapter ring with lozenge half-hour divisions, the finely matted centre with calendar aperture, pierced blued hands, winged cherub spandrels, latches to the six ringed pillar movement with scooped-shaped plates and raised on blocks, the bottom pillars secured with screwed hooks, short bob pendulum, verge escapement (possibly reconverted), high positioned outside countwheel strike with vertically pivotted hammer, bolt-and-shutter maintaining power; to be sold with a copy of The British Clockmakers' Heritage Exhibition catalogue and an Exhibitors' bound volume of The first twelve years of the English pendulum clock
6ft¾in. (185cm.) high (3)

Provenance

Bought from Mallet, 27 July 1955, (1595, (the invoice endorsed by R W Symonds)

Literature

Larry L Fabian, Could it have been Wren? in Antiquarian Horology, Vol.10, No.5, Winter 1977, pp.550-570, fig.5
P G Dawson, C B Drover & D W Parkes, Early English Clocks, 1982, pp.119, 166, pl.146-47, 219-20

Exhibited

The first twelve years of The English Pendulum Clock, No.9, loan exhibition at R A Lee, Bruton Place, London, 1969

Lot Essay

Either Ahasuerus Fromanteel II, Clockmakers' Company 1655, or
Ahasuerus Fromanteel III, Apprenticed 1654, Clockmakers' Company
1663-85

The design of this early longcase fully demonstrates the transitional period that English clock-case making was going through. Hooded weight driven pendulum wall clocks were not necessarily the precursor to the longcase. Examples exist of pendulum wall clocks of the same date or a little after longcases were known to exist, (vide P G Dawson, C B Drover & D W Parkes, Early English Clocks, pl.214-15). The ebonised trunk of this clock was a contemporary afterthought; before its addition it would have looked similar to another example by Ahasuerus Fromnateel vide The British Clockmakers' Heritage Exhibtion, The Science Museum, 1952, No.84 with photograph on the front cover and subsequently sold at Sotheby & Co., 8 July 1960, lot 117 and illustrated in Country Life, 10 Oct. 1960, p.853, fig.5. Both clocks exhibit many of the same features, such as a short bob verge escapement, a similar dial with 'spade' hands and an architectural hood with giltmetal mounts and identical pendant acorn finials

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