Edward East, London, Circa 1665 an architectural two-day s

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The movement of this clock displays the progression of developments first pioneered by Fromanteel and adopted by East, such as front latched pillars, apparently confirming its manufacture by East in the mid 1660s, while the use here of a direct-drive spring barrel for the strike train is also notable (see p.72, Exhibit 14 by Joseph Knibb, inventory no.32). The Italian Mannerist architectural ‘Catholic’ case is similar in design to the tomb of Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) in the Roman Catholic church of St. James in Antwerp, suggesting this clock was made for the continental market, which is seemingly confirmed by the gilded case plaque signed Cremstorff A Paris. Cremstorff may have retailed this clock, and he is recorded in Tardy’s, Dictionnaire Des Horlogers Francais, 1972, as Jehan (or Joachim) Cremstorff (or Cremsdorff), working in Paris from 1663 to 1683. (see also Sotheby’s, 3 July 2019, lot 4, for a watch by Cremstorff A Paris, sold for £2.15m).

In his diary on 24th June 1664, Samuel Pepys noted: After dinner to White Hall and there met with Mr. Pierce and he showed me the Queen’s bed-chamber with a clock by her bed-side wherein a lamp burns that tells her the time of the night at any time. This is the first contemporary evidence of a night clock in England, while Pepys’ particular citation suggests that it was a novel innovation at that time. That night clock had just been supplied to Catherine of Braganza by her appointed royal clockmaker, and Edward’s son, James East (see p.32, inventory no.177, for further notes on Edward and James East). Despite his importance to the East family firm, James East was not apparently admitted to the Clockmakers’ Company, and the business’s clocks continued to be signed for his father.

In 1655, Pope Alexander VII (born Fabio Chighi, ruled 1655-1670) had ordered Cardinal Farnese to provide a clock that would show the hours at night in silence, and thus the first night clock was conceived and made in Italy. An imported example probably provided the impetus for English clockmakers to follow suit but, in any event, the widespread introduction of repeat work from the late 1670s soon made night clocks redundant. Only 12 English spring night clocks are known to survive and although popular on the continent, English night clocks are extremely rare. With an inherent danger of catching alight, the demand appears to have been relatively small or perhaps many were destroyed; certainly ‘orphan’ night clock movements survive in larger numbers than do those complete with their original cases (as this example).
English night clocks utilise two divergent systems that reflect the differing innovative approach emanating from the two main early schools of English pendulum clockmaking; the ‘Fromanteel school’ favouring the ‘twin-disc’ system (see longcase example p.58, exhibit no.12 and collection inventory no.31), while the ‘East school’ generally used the ‘flag-on-chain’ system. Makers known to have supplied night clocks include the most illustrious: Fromanteel and his followers, Knibb and Tompion; and East and his associates, Hilderson, Jones, Seignior and Stanton.

Appropriately, the movement of the present East night clock uses the ‘flag-on-chain’ system, which operates via a three-layered assembly of surprising and ingenious mechanical simplicity. In the central layer, there is a succession of 12 flags pierced for the hour numerals but not assembled in numerical order, chain linked but not fitting tightly to the 10-sided wheel rotating them, the lower part hanging slack below (see right). In front of these is a disc pierced with two diametrically opposite circles through which an individual number is displayed. Those two layers rotate together, drawing a particular hour numeral across the sector in the dial plate, marked for the quarter-hours and minutes, registering the passing of that hour. The ingenious nature of this system is the order in which the numeral flags are assembled, with the next sequential hour numeral placed the fifth flag along, which combined with the way the chain hangs slack below the decagonal wheel, ensures that as one numeral passes behind the solid part of the dial plate at the end of its passage across the sector, the next hour appears at the opposite end to start its passage, and so on.

For more information about this clock, please visit the Carter Marsh website: cartermarsh.com/product/edward-east-london-circa-1665/

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