拍品專文
Thomas Tompion, 1639-1713, born at Northill, Bedfordshire, had moved to London by 1671 and become a brother of the Clockmakers' Company by redemption. In 1674 he moved to Water Lane and met Dr. Robert Hooke through whom he came to the notice of Charles II from which time he held an unrivalled position in English horology. In 1703 he was Master of the Clockmakers Company. He died aged 74 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Notwithsanding the obscurity of Tompion's training and uncertainty over the exact date of his arrival in London, it is certain that he established himself rapidly as a leading clockmaker. While defining his own style and method of working, Tompion started to produce clocks in small batches which is assumed to have led to his adopting a system of serial numbering, circa 1680.
During these initial years in London, the early and mid 1670s, Tompion must have been in contact with the leading horologists of the day. Of these links, that with Hooke is the only one documented, but others have been deduced on the basis of stylistic influences evident in the early clocks.
The present clock is the only Tompion spring clock falling within the 'architectural' period of casemaking, and must rank as one of the earliest clocks extant by him, circa 1673. Until its discovery in the late 1940s, it had generally been thought that Tompion had never made a turntable clock.
Parkes, in his contribution to Early English Clocks (op. cit., supra) talks of marked similarities in the present clock with the work of the Fromanteels, for instance in the sturdy construction and in the barrel ratchets of 18 teeth and like turning. Equally, the striking train, whilst similar to that of a Fromanteel clock illustrated by Parkes, pl. 117, is described by him as of improved layout.
In addition, there is a counterpart to the present clock, the silver-mounted ebony turntable clock by Joseph Knibb (sold in the Collection of Nine English Clocks, Sotheby's, 28 May 1982, lot 8). These two clocks are so similar in their cases and movements as to suggest that they were made, at least in part, by the same craftsmen. The movements are both of split-plate construction with ten pillars and the trains similarly planted with the exception that the ratchet and click for the alarm barrel are internal on Tompion's movement. Unlike Knibb, whose alarm stop lever is brought straight through above the spandrel, Tompion has cranked his to be centrally above XII in the dial.
But the most noteworthy differences are in the provision of maintaining power in Tompion's clock and in the escapement: tic-tac with Tompion over the verge of Knibb's clock. The design of the pallets is similar to that in the Tompion miniature longcase quarter striking night clock sodl in these Rooms, 5 July 1989, lot 72. Tompion's tic-tac design differs from Knibb's in that, as here, minimal clearance is allowed for between entry pallet and tooth. The tic-tac escapement was clearly an attempt to adapt the anchor escapement to the wide arc of swing of a bob pendulum. It seems Knibb's first tic-tac longcase was supplied to St. Andrews University in 1673, and Tompionn's present clock would appear to have been made in the same year.
Within Tompion's oeuvre the great majority of his spring clocks are in ebony cases. There are only two recorded standard bracket clocks in walnut cases, whereas the case of this perhaps earliest surviving spring clock by him is uniquely of olivewood oyster veneer.
Notwithsanding the obscurity of Tompion's training and uncertainty over the exact date of his arrival in London, it is certain that he established himself rapidly as a leading clockmaker. While defining his own style and method of working, Tompion started to produce clocks in small batches which is assumed to have led to his adopting a system of serial numbering, circa 1680.
During these initial years in London, the early and mid 1670s, Tompion must have been in contact with the leading horologists of the day. Of these links, that with Hooke is the only one documented, but others have been deduced on the basis of stylistic influences evident in the early clocks.
The present clock is the only Tompion spring clock falling within the 'architectural' period of casemaking, and must rank as one of the earliest clocks extant by him, circa 1673. Until its discovery in the late 1940s, it had generally been thought that Tompion had never made a turntable clock.
Parkes, in his contribution to Early English Clocks (op. cit., supra) talks of marked similarities in the present clock with the work of the Fromanteels, for instance in the sturdy construction and in the barrel ratchets of 18 teeth and like turning. Equally, the striking train, whilst similar to that of a Fromanteel clock illustrated by Parkes, pl. 117, is described by him as of improved layout.
In addition, there is a counterpart to the present clock, the silver-mounted ebony turntable clock by Joseph Knibb (sold in the Collection of Nine English Clocks, Sotheby's, 28 May 1982, lot 8). These two clocks are so similar in their cases and movements as to suggest that they were made, at least in part, by the same craftsmen. The movements are both of split-plate construction with ten pillars and the trains similarly planted with the exception that the ratchet and click for the alarm barrel are internal on Tompion's movement. Unlike Knibb, whose alarm stop lever is brought straight through above the spandrel, Tompion has cranked his to be centrally above XII in the dial.
But the most noteworthy differences are in the provision of maintaining power in Tompion's clock and in the escapement: tic-tac with Tompion over the verge of Knibb's clock. The design of the pallets is similar to that in the Tompion miniature longcase quarter striking night clock sodl in these Rooms, 5 July 1989, lot 72. Tompion's tic-tac design differs from Knibb's in that, as here, minimal clearance is allowed for between entry pallet and tooth. The tic-tac escapement was clearly an attempt to adapt the anchor escapement to the wide arc of swing of a bob pendulum. It seems Knibb's first tic-tac longcase was supplied to St. Andrews University in 1673, and Tompionn's present clock would appear to have been made in the same year.
Within Tompion's oeuvre the great majority of his spring clocks are in ebony cases. There are only two recorded standard bracket clocks in walnut cases, whereas the case of this perhaps earliest surviving spring clock by him is uniquely of olivewood oyster veneer.