The Hurst Longcase Night Clock, Circa 1669 a Fromanteel at

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This is the earlier of only two recorded night longcase clocks known to have survived with their original cases. The other is by Thomas Tompion of c.1690, a boxwood longcase with a short pendulum tic-tac escapement (Thomas Tompion 300 Years, p.508- 509). Two further ‘orphan’ longcase night clocks survive, but both are timepieces; one by Edward East of c.1670, now in a later marquetry case (British Museum ref. no.1980,1002.1, dated as c.1675); and another unsigned example of c.1675, now in a replica case, (The Golden Age of English Horology, p.388-391).

While popular on the continent, especially in Italy where the first ‘wandering-hour’ night clock was made for Pope Alexander VII in c.1655, English examples are extremely rare. 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, which was supplied to Catherine of Braganza by her royal clockmaker, James East.

Having a naked flame enclosed in a wooden box, night clocks have an inherent danger of catching alight and, after the Great Fire of 1666, it is not altogether surprising that demand was relatively small, while a number of cases were apparently damaged beyond repair, so that ‘orphan’ night clock movements now survive in larger numbers than those with their original wooden cases. In any event, by the late 1670s, the widespread introduction of pull-quarter repeat work made night clocks redundant.

The moral verse inscribed on the lower section of this dial is a philosophical reminder of death’s inevitability, and follows the long tradition of Momento Mori, reminding of the connection between time and man’s mortality. The anonymous inscription is in the style of John Bunyan (1628-1688) and The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678) and is all the more appropriate given that this London clock was made only a few years after the Great Plague (1665-6) and Great Fire (1666). The same verse is also found on another anonymous longcase night clock of c.1675 (The Golden Age of English Horology, p.388- 391). In contrast that clock is a timepiece, missing its original case, while its surviving movement utilises the ‘flag-on-chain’ system that was favoured by the ‘East school’. Although the present longcase night clock has had understandable repairs over the years to its case, it retains its integrity and pre-dates the only other complete surviving example by at least 20 years (The Boxwood Tompion, see Thomas Tompion 300 Years, p.508-509). It is the only early striking weight-driven night clock known (with an ingenious strike/silent mechanism), and the only complete surviving English night longcase that can be dated to the 1660s with an early long pendulum. In addition, with the anchor escapement controlled from below, it also appears to be the earliest surviving example of an inverted anchor escapement.

Dr Taylor points out that both Ahasuerus Fromanteel and his son John, produced novel orientations of escapements; Ahasuerus, in his earliest pendulum Box Clock of c.1658/9 (inventory no.183 in this collection), has mounted the going train above the strike train, requiring the escapewheel to be canted over at about 30°; John in his early anchor longcase, the Spanish Fromanteel of c.1657 (inventory no.16 in this collection), swings the 1-second anchor pendulum on the centreline with the pallet and crutch arbor, but the escapewheel is mounted off-centre, with the pallets themselves angled towards it, so that a symmetrical seconds hand on the dial was not possible... hinting that it may have been made before William Clement arguably made the ‘final stroke’ of a seconds hand applied to the anchor escapement (Garnier, Innovation & Collaboration, 2018, p.231).

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 (seen here), while the East school generally used the ‘flag-on-chain’ system (see p.40, Edward East spring night clock, inventory no.23, exhibit no.10). Although only 16 English night clock movements are known to have survived (12 spring and 4 weight), the makers who supplied them are among the most illustrious: Fromanteel and his associates, Knibb and Tompion; East and his associates, Hilderson, Jones, Seignior and Stanton...

For more information about this clock, please visit the Carter Marsh website: cartermarsh.com/product/the-hurst-longcase-night-clock-circa-1669/

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