Lot Essay
Thomas Tompion, 1639-1713, was born in Northill, Bedfordshire and established in London in 1671 when he became a Brother of the Clockmakers' Company by redemption. By 1674 he established workshops in Water Lane, off Fleet Street and had met the influential mathematician and Royal Society Curator of Experiments Dr. Robert Hooke. Through him Tompion's work was brought to the notice of Charles II and from then onwards became the primary source of important clocks to the Royal Court.
The present clock was almost cetainly the first of a small series of grande sonnerie three train movements. Its closest relation is the Medici Tompion, so called because it was commissioned by William III as a gift to Cosimo III de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany circa 1700.
Numbered 278, The Medici Tompion has the same case and mounts as the present Selby Lowndes Tompion. The main difference lies in the elaborate gilt-bronze feet present on the Medici Tompion but curiously absent on the Selby Lowndes clock which has later bun feet and might possibly have originally had the same arrangement. However the two clocks are slightly different in size, the Selby Lowndes clock is smaller and its mounts were definitely made from a seperate mould to that of the Medici clock. This being so and the fact that its first owner was probably not as important as the Grand Duke of Medici, judging by the absence of any coat of arms, it might originally have rested on simple block feet
The mystery of who first owned the present clock might have been solved by delving into the history of the Selby Lowndes family who owned it before the Kroyer-Kielberg family. The name Selby was added in 1831 by William Lowndes of Winslow and Whaddon, Bucks on his succession of the Whaddon estates. The great grandfather of William Lowndes who had the same name was a highly successful financier and most importantly was Secretary to the Tresury circa 1695. He was a member of the House of Commons and Chairman of Ways and Means; in Burke's Landed Gentry, MCMLII, p.1579, it is noted that Queen Anne conferred upon William Lowndes for his pioneering work for originating the funding system. The purchase and payment of works of art by the Royal Family would certianly have been overseen by William Lowndes's office and it would therefore be highly appropiate that he might have acquired the clock either as a gift from William III, in payment for his work to the Nation, or as a direct purchase. This possible attribution could account for the lack of any regalia on the vacant cartouche above the dial
The present clock was almost cetainly the first of a small series of grande sonnerie three train movements. Its closest relation is the Medici Tompion, so called because it was commissioned by William III as a gift to Cosimo III de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany circa 1700.
Numbered 278, The Medici Tompion has the same case and mounts as the present Selby Lowndes Tompion. The main difference lies in the elaborate gilt-bronze feet present on the Medici Tompion but curiously absent on the Selby Lowndes clock which has later bun feet and might possibly have originally had the same arrangement. However the two clocks are slightly different in size, the Selby Lowndes clock is smaller and its mounts were definitely made from a seperate mould to that of the Medici clock. This being so and the fact that its first owner was probably not as important as the Grand Duke of Medici, judging by the absence of any coat of arms, it might originally have rested on simple block feet
The mystery of who first owned the present clock might have been solved by delving into the history of the Selby Lowndes family who owned it before the Kroyer-Kielberg family. The name Selby was added in 1831 by William Lowndes of Winslow and Whaddon, Bucks on his succession of the Whaddon estates. The great grandfather of William Lowndes who had the same name was a highly successful financier and most importantly was Secretary to the Tresury circa 1695. He was a member of the House of Commons and Chairman of Ways and Means; in Burke's Landed Gentry, MCMLII, p.1579, it is noted that Queen Anne conferred upon William Lowndes for his pioneering work for originating the funding system. The purchase and payment of works of art by the Royal Family would certianly have been overseen by William Lowndes's office and it would therefore be highly appropiate that he might have acquired the clock either as a gift from William III, in payment for his work to the Nation, or as a direct purchase. This possible attribution could account for the lack of any regalia on the vacant cartouche above the dial