A CHARLES II STRIKING LONGCASE CLOCK

Details

RICHARD GREENHILL, ASHFORD, CIRCA 1680
A CHARLES II STRIKING LONGCASE CLOCK
CASE: the rising hood with scroll cresting carved with foliate swag flanking a scallop shell, five giltwood ball finials, the glazed front and sides framed by half-round spiral columns, gilt-brass capitals and bases to the front, the frieze above with three cherub-head spandrels, iron spring-catch to backboard and spoon-catch inside door, the trunk door with oval glazed pendulum aperture, the trunk and plinth with lozenge and quatrefoil pattern veneers bordered by padouk
DIAL: the 10 inch square dial profusely engraved with flowerheads and foliage, twin-screwed winged cherub-head spandrels to the angles, the silvered chapter ring with Roman hours and Arabic five minutes with fleur-de-lis half-hour markers, date aperture and subsidiary seconds ring, drapery cartouche signed 'Richardus Greenhill / Ashfordiae fecit', and engraved to the lower edge 'Time Spends', blued steel hands, the winding holes with bolt-and-shutter mechanism; latched dial feet
MOVEMENT: the substantial twin train movement with recoil anchor escapement, the plates joined by six ringed pillars, the strike train with countwheel mounted to the backplate striking a large bell mounted vertically above the plates, the iron pendulum with wing-nut and brass-cased bob, two brass pulleys and two brass cased weights, with iron seatboard
Walnut, padouk, brass
82 1⁄4 in. (208.9 cm.) high; 17 in. (43.2 cm.) wide; 9 1⁄2 in. (24.1 cm.) deep

Provenance

Unknown, Eastbourne, 1898 (from page of auction catalogue pinned inside door '58 Seaside, Eastbourne, Thursday 23rd June 1898, Lot 57 'The grandfather clock with brass face by Richard Greenhill in walnut case'.
Sir John Prestige, Bourne Park, Kent;
'Important English and Continental Bracket and Longcase Clocks, the Property of the late Sir John Prestige'; sold Sotheby's, London, 28 October 1963, lot 136, to R.A. Lee (£750), from whom acquired.

Literature

C. Hussey, 'Bourne Park, Kent - I', Country Life, 1 October 1964, p. 841 (illustrated).
P.G. Dawson, C.B. Drover, D.W. Parkes, Early English Clocks, Woodbridge, 1982, p. 211, pls. 283-6 and 347-8.
M. Pearson, Kent Clocks & Clockmakers, Ashbourne, 1997, pp. 67-84, figs. 6⁄14-19.

Special notice

This lot will be removed to Christie’s Park Royal. Christie’s will inform you if the lot has been sent offsite. Our removal and storage of the lot is subject to the terms and conditions of storage which can be found at Christies.com/storage and our fees for storage are set out in the table below - these will apply whether the lot remains with Christie’s or is removed elsewhere. Please call Christie’s Client Service 24 hours in advance to book a collection time at Christie’s Park Royal. All collections from Christie’s Park Royal will be by pre-booked appointment only. Tel: +44 (0)20 7839 9060 Email: cscollectionsuk@christies.com. If the lot remains at Christie’s it will be available for collection on any working day 9.00 am to 5.00 pm. Lots are not available for collection at weekends.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Amelia Walker Director, Specialist Head of Private & Iconic Collections

awalker@christies.com +44 20 7389 2085

Lot Essay

Pearson records that Richard Greenhill was from a family of Kent clockmakers. The present clock, together with two quarter-striking large lantern clocks, is one of only three by him known to survive.

Sir Nicholas Goodison noted: 'Dawson, Drover and Parkes, (Early English Clocks, Woodbridge, 1982, p. 211), assert that the movement was the work of a lantern clockmaker, evidenced by the large bell, the large plates and the central boss to the hour hand. In their words it is a 'provincial attempt to reproduce the London work of about 1680 at least a decade later'. It seems more likely that a number of craftsmen were involved, as with nearly all clocks, and that the finely engraved dial plate was subcontracted to or bought from a London engraver.'

This clock stood in Sir John Prestige's (1884-1962) bedroom at Bourne Park, Kent. Sir Nicholas had been a regular visitor to Sir John's brother Ernest Prestige's house, delivering share certificates to the great clock collector in the late 1950s, and in turn encouraging his interest in horology. By the time Nicholas Goodison met him, Ernest Prestige had already given, in 1947, several important clocks to the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, including the Drayton House Tompion, which Nicholas would have undoubtedly known well from his time as an undergraduate at King's College when he was a regular visitor to the Fitzwilliam.

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