JOHN EBSWORTH, LONDON. THIRD PERIOD, CIRCA 1670

細節

An English brass striking lantern clock with alarm
John Ebsworth, London. Third Period, circa 1670
The case with engraved brass front and side frets, replaced side doors with 'wing' apertures, iron back plate and iron hoop and spurs, the thistle and tulip engraved dial plate signed on a reserve John Ebsworth/Londini fecit, the narrow Roman chapter ring with trident half hour markers, brass alarm-setting disc with thistle-engraved centre, single well-sculpted blued steel hand, the two train thirty-hour movement with separately wound trains, verge escapement with central swinging pendulum, countwheel strike and with alarm positioned on the back plate, strike hammer positioned on the right and alarm hammer to the rear; four lead weights
33 cm. high

注意事項

Christie’s charges a premium to the buyer on the Hammer Price of each lot sold at the following rates: 29.75% of the Hammer Price of each lot up to and including €5,000, plus 23.8% of the Hammer Price between €5,001 and €400,000, plus 14.28% of any amount in excess of €400,001. Buyer’s premium is calculated on the basis of each lot individually.

拍品專文

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
George White, English Lantern Clocks, Woodbridge, 1989, p.207 et alia
Dawson, Drover & Parkes, Early English Clocks, Woodbridge, 1982,
pp.55-73
John Ebsworth (died 1699) was apprenticed to Richard Ames in 1657. He worked at the Cross Keys in Lothbury but is said to have worked later at 'New Cheep Side'. He was an Assistant in the Clockmakers Company from 1682, Warden 1694-1696 and Master in 1697. See Brian Loomes, The Early Clockmakers of Great Britain, Southwick, 1981, pp.208-209.
White comments 'He seemed especially fond of centre swinging pendulums which he continued to make into the 1690s' (p.207). Brian Loomes has suggested that the purpose of separately wound trains on lantern clocks with alarms may have been to allow the user to leave the strike train unwound; an alarm clock's principal use would have been in the bedroom and therefore most owners would not want the clock striking through the night.