Beschreibung:

A fine Commonwealth period/Charles II Brass lantern clock Benjamin Hill, London, circa 1660 The posted countwheel bell-striking movement with separately wound trains and later anchor escapement for a seconds pendulum, the dial with central alarm disc enveloped by stylised leafy floral sprays issuing from flowerheads at three and nine o'clock towards further blooms at six and twelve o'clock, with iron hand within applied narrow Roman numeral chapter ring with stylised fleur-de-lys hour markers and engraved leafy infill to angles, the standard London 'Lothbury' frame with column turned corner posts beneath engraved foliate scroll pierced dolphin pattern front fret signed Benjamin Hill in Fleete Streete to lower edge and decorated side frets, vase turned finials and domed bell bearer incorporating elaborate scroll-pierced panels between the limbs above, the sides with hinged brass doors, on turned ball feet, (no pendulum or weights), 38cm (15ins) high. Provenance: The property of a private collector. Benjamin Hill is recorded in Loomes, Brian LANTERN CLOCKS & Their Makers as born in Hatton, Warwickshire in 1617 and apprenticed through the Blacksmiths' Company to Richard Child in 1632. He was made a free Brother of the Clockmakers' Company in 1640, served as an Assistant in 1651, Warden from 1652 and was appointed Master in 1657. In 1645 Benjamin Hill married Gunnett Say (sister of fellow clockmaker Nehemiah Say) at St. Bride's, Fleet Street and by 1646 he had set up in Boar's Head Alley off Fleet Street in St. Dunstan's Parish (possibly Cock and Key Court). His property was subsequently destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666 causing him to relocate to Fetter Lane. Benjamin Hill died in 1670 and was buried at St. Dunstan's; his will and inventory survives with the latter published and discussed by Jeremy Evans in his article BENJAMIN HILL, SOME FURTHER NOTES in Antiquarian Horology March 2001 (vol. XXVI, no. 1) page pages 52-61. Of Benjamin Hill around half a dozen lantern clocks have been documented and at least three watches are known to survive, another slightly later lantern clock by him is also included in the sale (lot 155). The pattern of casting used for the frame of the current lot was probably introduced during the latter half of the 1650's (see White, George English Lantern Clocks page 180 figures IV/37 - IV/39) and incorporates an updated form of finial similar to those sometimes seen on miniature clocks or large clocks by makers such as Peter Closon made earlier in the decade. This type of frame appears to have quickly superseded the earlier 'Lothbury' pattern (see previous and following lots) becoming the predominant type for used for standard lantern clocks made from the start of the third period (ie. from circa 1660). The dial engraving is very typical of that seen on archetypal second period clocks and is almost certainly by the same hand who engraved the dial of the previous lot as well as a clock by Thomas Knifton illustrated in Loomes, Brian LANTERN CLOCKS and Their Makers on page 104 (fig. 8.36). It is also interesting to note that the current clock also shares the same design of half-hour marker and basic hand pattern with the previous lot and the example by Knifton. These details would strongly suggest that the present clock was made during the mid-to-late 1650's rather than early 1660's hence can be described as being a 'second period' clock, being perhaps one of the first to use frame castings that were to become typical of 'third period' London work. Condition report disclaimer