An exceptional Charles II period walnut longcase clock by this famous maker.

The latched finned pillar 8-day movement sounds the hours on a single ‘pork pie’ bell and has outside countwheel strike.

The superb 10-inch square brass dial is signed on the dial plate below VI Joseph Knibb London. It has four cherub and foliate corner spandrels, inset datework below XII, pierced and faceted blued steel hands and a finely engraved chapter ring with inside quarter and half hour markers.

The slender proportioned early case, which retains its original carved shell and foliate cresting, has beautiful matching figured walnut veneers and fine patination. The rising hood has attached barley twist pillars to the front and rear and a characteristic s-scroll sound fret below the cornice moulding. It retains a metal catch within the case to hold the hood in a raised position while the movement is wound.

Height: 78 in (198 cm)

Width: 16 ¾ in (42.5 cm)

Depth: 9 in (23 cm)

*Joseph Knibb, the most famous member of the celebrated Knibb clockmaking family, was born circa 1640. He was apprenticed to his cousin Samuel in about 1655 and after serving seven years worked first in Oxford and then moved to London in 1670 where he was made free of the Clockmakers’ Company. He must soon have built up a good reputation for himself as it is recorded that he supplied a turret clock for Windsor Castle in 1677 and payments were made to him in 1682 on behalf of King Charles II.

Joseph Knibb made many longcase and table clocks for domestic use. He was a particularly inventive maker and experimented with several different types of striking and repeating mechanisms. His clocks have arguably some of the most beautifully proportioned cases of any English clockmaker of the Golden Age.

Reference: Dawson, Drove & Parkes, Early English Clocks

Ronald A. Lee, The Knibb Family * Clockmakers

HW6473