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The Henry Graves Knibb circa 1680

The Henry Graves Knibb circa 1680

A very fine walnut and olivewood double-six hour grande sonnerie striking longcase clock with skeletonised dial


Height

6 foot 9½ inches

Case

Case of well figured walnut and olivewood veneered on oak, formerly-rising hood with shallow dome top above a fretted frieze and gilt swags, the dial aperture flanked by Salomonic columns, the convex throat moulding above the rectangular trunk door inlaid with geometric patterns with boxwood borders framing walnut and central olivewood oysters, ogee moulding to the plinth on bun feet.

Dial

10½ inch square gilt-brass dial with four latched dial feet, the finely matted centre with calendar aperture below XII, superbly sculpted blued-steel hands. The skeletonised silvered chapter-ring with Roman hours and dot half-hours, every minute numbered. Flanked by winged-cherub spandrels with a wheatear border signed Joseph Knibb Londini Fecit along the lower edge.

Movement

Massive three-train weight-driven movement, 7¼ by 8¼ inch plates, split for each train and secured by ten finned baluster pillars, six latched, going-train with anchor escapement and butterfly adjustment above the backcock. Strike train governed by a large diameter outside countwheel, the quarters by a smaller outside countwheel, linked by a pivoted lift-off lever. The larger bell struck for the hours, the smaller for the quarters.

Duration

8-day.

Provenance

Wetherfield Collection.

Arthur S. Vernay, New York, 1930.

Henry Graves Jr., USA (In 1928, Graves commissioned ‘the most complicated watch in the world’, The Supercomplication, from Patek Philippe, delivered 1933, sold Nov 2015 for £15.1m); thence to

1953 Reginald ‘Pete’ Fullerton, Graves’s grandson, USA.

Sotheby’s NY, 14 Jun 2012, lot 61 ($386,500).

Literature

WE Hurcomb, The Wetherfield Collection of 222 Clocks, London, 1928, p.84.

R. A. Lee, The Knibb Family Clockmakers, p. 33, pl. 26.

E. Bruton, Wetherfield Collection of Clocks, p. 144, pl. 96.

Garnier & Carter, The Golden Age of English Horology, 2015, p.352-355.

Escapement

Anchor.

This rare clock has formed part of three of the most important watch and clock collections over the last 100 years: the Wetherfield, Graves/Fullerton and Scott collections.

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Product Description

This rare clock has formed part of three of the most important watch and clock collections over the last 100 years: the Wetherfield, Graves/Fullerton and Scott collections.

Additional information

Dimensions 5827373 cm