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Lot Essay
Ahasuerus Fromanteel the Elder was born in 1607 in Norwich and possibly apprenticed in Norwich to Jacques van Barton. He moved to London about 1631 and joined the Blacksmiths' Company, becoming a Freeman in 1655/6.
His greatest achievement was to have been the first to learn about the all-new invention of the pendulum that had been recently invented by Jan Christian Huygens, and for bringing its technology to England.
His now famous pronouncement in Mercurius Politicus in October 1658 that the Fromanteel family had the new all-new pendulum clocks that go exact and keep equaller time than any other now made without this regulater not only changed the face of English horology but also put the Fromanteel family firmly into the history books.
For many years this clock was regarded as the earliest English pendulum clock known to exist. Since that claim in Cescinsky & Webster op.cit. another Fromanteel movement, dated 1658, (lacking dial and case) was discovered in about 1940.
After it's second sale in 1976 the present clock's movement and case was studied in great detail by Messrs Dawson, Drover & Parkes and their findings were published in considerable detail in the book Early English clocks, op. cit..
The timepiece by Fromanteel dated 1658, (illustrated in Early English clocks, op. cit., pl. 89 & 90) has rectangular plates, six square pillars and a going barrel train. Its format is very much in the contemporary Dutch style and it was probably copied directly from a clock in Coster's workshop in the Hague and then brought to London. With the absence of any other recent discoveries the present clock appears to come next in the chain of the earliest English pendulum clocks.
There are many features about its movement and case that distinguish it from other more numerous later examples from the 1660's. The square pillars which are not an English feature are also used in what is chronologically thought to be Fromanteel's next clock now in the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University (Early English clocks, pl. 95-98 & 213). This is thought to be the last clock by Fromanteel to use square pillars. In the next example (Early English Clocks, pl. 116-118 & 187-190) the pillars are the normal turned variety but what is interesting about this clock is that the case is of a very similar architectural form to the present example with its spring-loaded release catches for the front, rear and side doors.
His greatest achievement was to have been the first to learn about the all-new invention of the pendulum that had been recently invented by Jan Christian Huygens, and for bringing its technology to England.
His now famous pronouncement in Mercurius Politicus in October 1658 that the Fromanteel family had the new all-new pendulum clocks that go exact and keep equaller time than any other now made without this regulater not only changed the face of English horology but also put the Fromanteel family firmly into the history books.
For many years this clock was regarded as the earliest English pendulum clock known to exist. Since that claim in Cescinsky & Webster op.cit. another Fromanteel movement, dated 1658, (lacking dial and case) was discovered in about 1940.
After it's second sale in 1976 the present clock's movement and case was studied in great detail by Messrs Dawson, Drover & Parkes and their findings were published in considerable detail in the book Early English clocks, op. cit..
The timepiece by Fromanteel dated 1658, (illustrated in Early English clocks, op. cit., pl. 89 & 90) has rectangular plates, six square pillars and a going barrel train. Its format is very much in the contemporary Dutch style and it was probably copied directly from a clock in Coster's workshop in the Hague and then brought to London. With the absence of any other recent discoveries the present clock appears to come next in the chain of the earliest English pendulum clocks.
There are many features about its movement and case that distinguish it from other more numerous later examples from the 1660's. The square pillars which are not an English feature are also used in what is chronologically thought to be Fromanteel's next clock now in the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University (Early English clocks, pl. 95-98 & 213). This is thought to be the last clock by Fromanteel to use square pillars. In the next example (Early English Clocks, pl. 116-118 & 187-190) the pillars are the normal turned variety but what is interesting about this clock is that the case is of a very similar architectural form to the present example with its spring-loaded release catches for the front, rear and side doors.