Clockmaker thomas5/8/2023 ![]() ![]() This early clock by William Clement could be the clock he experimented on when he was developing the anchor escapement. The plates had been drilled for a cross-beat escapement, which presumably had been fitted, but then it had been fitted with an anchor escapement and a long 1 ¼ seconds pendulum. The plates had been marked out for a verge escapement, but the holes had not been drilled. The Fromanteel type movement (with split front plate) had been altered during its construction. Most of William Clement’s early clocks were turret clocks with anchor escapement and long pendulums, but one of his earliest longcase clocks was illustrated in “Horological Masterworks” published by the Antiquarian Horological Society in 2003, example number 19, has a very early movement. The anchor escapement was regulated by the Royal Pendulum, 1 metre in length and beating once every second. A short bob pendulum was introduced to regulate the verge by Ahasaureus Fromanteel in the first longcase clocks made by him in 1658. Most clocks prior to this were regulated with a verge escapement. ![]() William Clement, junior, must have assisted Walter from time to time, making his anchors which had prompted the idea of an anchor-shaped escapement. An earlier William who was baptised in 1638 must have died. ![]() So, we must assume that William was probably about 4 at that time. Their father, William, senior, had died in June 1646, almost 9 months before William’s baptism on 7th March 1647. His elder brother Walter was an anchorsmith in Rotherhithe and lived in the family home. He had been apprenticed to Thomas Chapman of the B.C. William Clement invented the anchor escapement about 1665. If it had not been for William Clement, clocks might still have been treated as objects of amusement and not useful timekeepers. This clock, deemed a supreme example of English Clock Making, is in the Walker Museum, Liverpool, having been bought by the museum with Heritage Lottery funding and donations from the National Arts Collections Fund for £250,000.Įxamples of clocks by Bolton’s Thomas Barry are shown below.Ī mahogany 8 day tall clock by Thomas Barry, scrolled bonnet containing an unusual square dial with crescent shaped moon phase window, waist with arched door with applied moulded edges, flanked by inset columns, on a panelled base on OG feet.One of the most important “great” clockmakers of the 17th century and probably the least well-known, was William Clement. who had fastidiously worked on a new type of mechanism that was built with such precision, it miraculously seemed to know where the moon was in the sky and when Easter Sunday would fall in any given year! The astronomical clock was so unique and so sought after once it was announced to the clock buying population of Lancashire, that it was raffled at Mr Forshaw’s Hotel, Liverpool, for 1 guinea a ticket in 1787 with only 150 tickets available. Many of his later clocks survive.īolton’s Thomas was the Son of the famous Ormskirk Clock maker also a Thomas Barry. ![]() Thomas Barry produced a number of painted face long case clocks and often used a crescent shaped moon phase window, or other complex designs, which isn’t surprising when you consider the works of his father. Thomas Barry worked out of 125 Bradshawgate and is listed as trading trading between 1816 and when he died in 1829. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |