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Lot Essay
The present clock is extensively described and illustrated in Antiquarian Horology op. cit..
The exact authorship of this clock is somewhat confusing. The actual clockmaker was Samuel Deacon 1742-1816, the son of a farmer in Leicestershire who showed remarkable aptitude for mechanics at an early age. He came to the notice of a local clockmaker, Joseph Donisthorne with whom Deacon apprenticed for the statuary six years before joining Thomas Lindley as a journeyman in 1768. At this point Deacon was befriended by the Reverend William Ludlam, 1717-1788, vicar of Kings Norton Village (10 miles south of Leicester) and listed in Bennet's Who's Who of Leicestershire 1500-1970 as a 'Mathematician and Mechanical Genius'. It was Ludlam, already a client of Thomas Lindley, who taught Deacon the mechanics of making chiming and musical clocks. This clock therefore had no less than three co-authors; it was made for Samuel Darker of Tugby, designed by the Rev. Ludlam, physically made by Deacon (who dated it to the nearest month) and finally retailed (and probably overseen) by Thomas Lindley.
The exact authorship of this clock is somewhat confusing. The actual clockmaker was Samuel Deacon 1742-1816, the son of a farmer in Leicestershire who showed remarkable aptitude for mechanics at an early age. He came to the notice of a local clockmaker, Joseph Donisthorne with whom Deacon apprenticed for the statuary six years before joining Thomas Lindley as a journeyman in 1768. At this point Deacon was befriended by the Reverend William Ludlam, 1717-1788, vicar of Kings Norton Village (10 miles south of Leicester) and listed in Bennet's Who's Who of Leicestershire 1500-1970 as a 'Mathematician and Mechanical Genius'. It was Ludlam, already a client of Thomas Lindley, who taught Deacon the mechanics of making chiming and musical clocks. This clock therefore had no less than three co-authors; it was made for Samuel Darker of Tugby, designed by the Rev. Ludlam, physically made by Deacon (who dated it to the nearest month) and finally retailed (and probably overseen) by Thomas Lindley.