| Height | 6 foot 4 inches (1930 mm) |
| Case | The architectural case veneered in ebonised pearwood onto a pine carcass. The rising hood with gable-end pediment, above the cornice and frieze with central gilt-brass draped swag mount, all supported by Solomonic columns with integral ebonised capitals and bases, flanking the dial aperture, and matching quarter columns behind the glazed sides. The hood resting on a convex throat moulding, above the ebonised trunk door with three raised panels and a circular glazed pendulum lenticle, with surface mounted frame-mouldings and extending to the full width of the trunk. The cavetto/ovolo base mouldings above the plain rectangular plinth, standing on four ebonised bun feet. |
| Dial | The 9 inch (228 mm) square brass dial with winged cherub head spandrels to the corners, the narrow silvered brass chapter ring, with Roman hours and fleur-de-lys half-hour markers between, and unusually small Arabic five-minute numbers within the division ring, with early pierced and shaped hands in blued steel. The matted centre with shuttered winding holes and chamfered date and alarm setting apertures, both set or adjusted using pin holes, the silvered Arabic seconds ring below XII, signed within Eduardus Fowll Londini Fecit on a polished reserve. The dial held by four feet, latched to the movement frontplate. |
| Movement | The substantial movement plates have six knopped and finned pillars, all latched on the front plate, and planted with two four-wheel trains; the going with anchor escapement set fairly low in the plates, the bolt-and-shutter maintaining power with an unusually long bolt working on the underside of the centre wheel via a shepherd’s crook lever below the dial; the strike train governed by an inside countwheel mounted on the great wheel, which is an early example of this feature, the fly is outside the plates and runs under a bridge screwed to the backplate. The crownwheel rope-driven alarm mechanism is mounted on a separate plate, screwed to the two upper pillars on the right (III) side of the plates. |
| Duration | 8 days |
| Provenance | Wolley & Wallis, 14 October 1981, lot 376; Sotheby’s, 24 May 2000, lot 239 for £93,500; John C Taylor Collection, inventory no.36 |
| Literature | Collector’s Pieces Clocks And Watches, 1964, exhibition catalogue, p.6; Horological Masterworks, 2003, p.98-101; Garnier & Hollis, Innovation & Collaboration, 2018, p.248 |
| Escapement | Anchor with one-second pendulum |
| Strike Type | Inside countwheel hour strike with alarm |
| Exhibited | 1964, Science Museum, Collector’s Pieces Clocks And Watches, AHS Tenth Anniversary Exhibition, exhibit no.5; 2003, Horological Masterworks, Oxford Museum for the History of Science and the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, exhibit no.22 2018, London, Innovation & Collaboration, exhibit no.64 |
Exhibit № 13: Edward Fowll, London. Circa 1671
A rare and unusual Charles II ebonised architectural striking longcase clock with alarm
£150,000
Edward Fowll (also Fowle and Fowell) was born in c.1644, the son of Stephen Fowll, a weaver late of Whitechapel. He was apprenticed through the Merchant Taylors’ Company in April 1657 to Jacob (or James) Smythurst of the Shambles, until Freed in February 1665. Fowll worked as a clockmaker in Whitechapel and in June 1667 took as apprentice in Merchant Taylors’, John Longland, who was made Free in 1674. Fowll became a Free Brother in Clockmakers’ in April 1670, and took as apprentice through them in 1674, Ezekiel Andrews, but he was not freed. Edward Fowll is not heard of after 1674, and Loomes suggests he may perhaps have gone to East Indies with his apprentice, Ezekiel Andrews, who died there.
The large plated frame movement of this clock is of very high quality and is latched throughout, with an early use of a countwheel mounted onto the greatwheel, but it also displays Fowll’s individualistic style. The maintaining-power arbor is mounted close to the bottom side of the plates resulting in an unusually long bolt working on the underside of the centre wheel, the escapement is set low in the plates which has left the top part of the plates vacant. The alarm disc, behind the aperture in the dial, runs on a stud set in the front plate midway between the centre arbor and date aperture and has a wheel behind it, which meshes with a similar size wheel running on the hour wheel pipe. This wheel has a pin that, in running off a step on the minute wheel, activates the pivoted lever, which at the appointed time, unlocks a pin on the rim of the alarm crown wheel and sets off the alarm. The dial signature is also unusual, but particularly pleasing, being set within the seconds ring. Equally, although the case is of typical overall form, the full-width trunk door overlaying the sides, might indicate that it was produced by a cabinetmaker who was not making clock cases on an everyday basis.
Product Description
Edward Fowll (also Fowle and Fowell) was born in c.1644, the son of Stephen Fowll, a weaver late of Whitechapel. He was apprenticed through the Merchant Taylors’ Company in April 1657 to Jacob (or James) Smythurst of the Shambles, until Freed in February 1665. Fowll worked as a clockmaker in Whitechapel and in June 1667 took as apprentice in Merchant Taylors’, John Longland, who was made Free in 1674. Fowll became a Free Brother in Clockmakers’ in April 1670, and took as apprentice through them in 1674, Ezekiel Andrews, but he was not freed. Edward Fowll is not heard of after 1674, and Loomes suggests he may perhaps have gone to East Indies with his apprentice, Ezekiel Andrews, who died there.
The large plated frame movement of this clock is of very high quality and is latched throughout, with an early use of a countwheel mounted onto the greatwheel, but it also displays Fowll’s individualistic style. The maintaining-power arbor is mounted close to the bottom side of the plates resulting in an unusually long bolt working on the underside of the centre wheel, the escapement is set low in the plates which has left the top part of the plates vacant. The alarm disc, behind the aperture in the dial, runs on a stud set in the front plate midway between the centre arbor and date aperture and has a wheel behind it, which meshes with a similar size wheel running on the hour wheel pipe. This wheel has a pin that, in running off a step on the minute wheel, activates the pivoted lever, which at the appointed time, unlocks a pin on the rim of the alarm crown wheel and sets off the alarm. The dial signature is also unusual, but particularly pleasing, being set within the seconds ring. Equally, although the case is of typical overall form, the full-width trunk door overlaying the sides, might indicate that it was produced by a cabinetmaker who was not making clock cases on an everyday basis.
Additional information
| Dimensions | 5827373 cm |
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