- Museum number
- 1958,1006.2057
- Description
-
Automaton table clock; spring-driven thirty-hour movement; both trains with fusees; going-train with verge escapement, formerly with balance, now with pendulum; striking train with count-wheel; hour sounded on low bell, approaching hour on higher bell (at half-hour); dial with concentric hands; silvered chapter-ring with odd minutes numbered; two-tier ebony and ebonised pearwood(?) case; automaton figure of Father Time, formerly connected to balance; gilded-brass ball feet and finial; right arm beats time on sand-glass to sound of small bell.
TRAIN-COUNTS.
Going.
Gt wheel 48
2nd wheel 54/16
3rd wheel 48/6
Contrate wheel 30/6
Crown wheel 15/6
Gt wheel carries pinion of 58 which drives pinion of 20, extended through plate to take minute wheel of 32/minute pinion of 4, canon pinion 32, hour wheel 48.
2nd wheel carries internally toothed wheel of 35 to lift smallest hammer.
Striking.
Gt wheel 48
2nd wheel 56/12
Hoop wheel 50/7
Warning wheel 45/5
Fly 5
2nd wheel with 8 lifting pins to each side; pinion of 4 extended through plate gears with count-wheel of 78.
- Production date
- 1645-1655
- Dimensions
-
Height: 49 centimetres
-
Width: 21 centimetres
-
Depth: 18.50 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- The following text is the entry for this object from the unpublished catalogue of pre-pendulum clocks by John Leopold, former Assistant Keeper of Horology at the Museum. This information is unedited and should be used accordingly.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
AUTOMATON TABLE CLOCK WITH HALF-HOUR STRIKING IN FULL AND ORIGINALLY WITH MINUTE-STRIKING (?).
Ilbert No. ----. According to Malcolm Gardner (cat.Ilbert [1958] Foreword) acquired in the Flea Market in Paris.
Bibliography.
Exhib.cat. London 1958 no.116.
Cat.Ilbert (1958) no.60 (the clock is attributed to Fromqnteel).
Dawson etc. (1958) 166 (ascribes the clock to Fromanteel).
SIGNATURE.
No signature or date. Scratched on the back of the dial: "Appl( )hite Lamb & Goodal". The spring barrel of the striking train has "S" (scratched). The brass pring-washer of the hourhand wheel has scratched "m" and "R". On the inside of the door of the case there is a paper label on which is written (by Ilbert?):
William Leybourn's "Pleasure
with Profit" 1694. pp 31 of
Recreations Mechanical. Art XXXVII.
"John Fromanteele in 1649 made a
table clock with springs. This clock
gives one stroke on a small bell / min."
To this has been added:
This is 108 seconds
DESCRIPTION.
Movement.
General.
Posted frame movement, constructed entirely of brass. The frame consists of three nearly square plates, one at the bottom and two at the top (forming a so-called "double roof"), connected at the corners by four pillars of square cut with simple prismatic bases and capitals. The pillars are screwed at the bottom by the feet (which resemble the feet of lantern clocks), and pinned at the top. The topmost plate, which carries the automaton figure and the bells, forms a separate unit which can be removed after loosening the connecting rods for the levers and the hammers (and removving the pendulum, which is not original).
All wheels have four crossings, except the contrate and the scape wheels and the 3rd wheel of the striking, which have three, and the great wheels and the steel wheel of , which are solid. All train wheels have decoratively turned collets except the contrate and the scape wheel, which have simple collets.
Both greatwheels are constructed in an unusual way: the wheels rest on a square but are mounted on a hexagon, which was then riveted.
Going train.
32 ┐
── │ 58 ║ 48 54 48 30
minutes ← 32 │ ── ║ ── ── ─────── ── 15 (x2)
├ 20 ║ 16 6 24 ┐ 6 6
4 ┘ │
── └ 7 (x2) → automaton
12-hours ← 48
Spring barrel: one cap brazed, the other pinned (four studs). Set-up wheel: 12 ratchet teeth.
Great wheel: split fusee, 9½ turns, cut for gut. Open clickwork, 18 ratchet teeth for winding; click spring later. Screwed to the great wheel is a wheel of 58, which drives the underdial work.
2nd wheel: riveted to the band is a ring with 35 internally cut inclined teeth for lifting the small hammer.
3rd wheel: the arebor carries a second pinion (24) which drives the scape wheel of the automaton.
Contrate and scape wheels later. The present verge is set at an angle across the top plate in order that the bob clear the dial.
The first wheel of 32 carries the cam for pumping the hammer tails; the pinion of 4 is a lantern.
Automaton.
This is a painted wooden half-figure of Chronos ("Father Time") with articulated head and right arm. The head sits on the extended verge of the subsidiary escapement and moves back and forth in about 27 seconds. The arm is lifted by the hammer of the subsidiary striking; when it drops the hand strikes the top of the sandglass which is held in the other hand (at intervals of about 99.4 sec.).
Striking train.
The train strikes half- and full hours in full on two bells; the hammers are fixed and only the block of the the hammertails is moved to make either hammer strike its bell. Hammers and tails are connected by rods, the joints being secured by springs.
Train count:
48 ┌ 56 50 45
── │ ── ── ──
12 ┤ 7 5 5
│
4 ║ ┘
── ║
2x12 hour ← 78 ║
Spring barrel: one cap brazed, the other pinned (four studs). Set-up wheel: 12 ratchet teeth.
Great wheel: 48. Split fusee, 11½ turtns, cut for gut; 18 ratchet teeth for winding; open clickwork.
2nd wheel: 8 lifting pins facing both ways. The pinion of 4 is a lantern cut into the end of the arbor. The hammertails arfe pumped by a cam on the first wheel of 32 in the underdial work.
3rd wheel: hoop.
4th wheel: pin for warning.
Fly: ;ight brass fly.
Warned striking with unlocking by the wheel of the minute hand, warning on the 4th and locking on the hoop of the 3rd wheel.
Case.
Ebonized mahogany(?) case (the seat board and the core of the top of pine) standing on four gilt brass ball feet. The case is constructed in two tiers, each tier glazed at front and sides. The lower front is hinged to open; there are spring-catches at top and bottom to keep the door closed. The back of the case is hinged to open in a single piece and there are both a sliding catch and a hook to secure it.
The case is later and probably dates from the early 18th century (see Conversions).
CONVERSIONS.
MEASUREMENTS.
Case: Hight - 479 mm
Width (without feet) - 209 mm
Depth (without feet) - 184 mm
Movemnent: distance between the plates - 124 mm
distance between the bars (going) - 39 mm; (striking) - 41 mm.
PERFORMANCE.
Going train: great wheel - 20/58 rev. per hour (1 rev. in 2,9 hours).
escapement - 11,172.413 beats per hour.
duration - ca.27.5 hours.
Striking train:
duration ca.388 strokes (in 24 hours 312 are required).
Automaton: moves his head back and forth ca.130.4 times per hour (1x in ca.27.6 sec.).
Subsidiary striking: ca.36.2 strokes per hour (1x per ca.99.4 sec.).
For these unconventional results see Commentary.
HISTORY AND PROVENANCE.
The clock is not mentioned in the Ilbert ledgers. According to Malcolm Gardner (cat.Ilbert [1958] foreword) Ilbert acquired it in the Fleamarket in Paris. The repair inscription on the back of the dial seems to indicate that it had been in England before that.
Presented by Mr.Gilbert Edgar C.B.E. in 1958; reg. CAI 2057.
In October 1986 the clock was loaned to the Livesey Museum, Old Kent Road, Southwark, for inclusion in their exhibition "Robots and Automata" (28th October 1986 - 13th June 1987, no catalogue). Preparatory to this exhibition the figure, which suffered from flaking paint, was restored by Frank Minney, Orsman Rd., in August 1986. On the evening of 27th December 1986 the clock was stolen from the Livesey Museum, but it was recovered that same evening by Mr.Henry Brown, 35 Ethnard Road, who returned it to the Livesey Museum. It was apparently found where the thieves had dropped it. The damaged case was repaired in October 1987 by Phoenix Antique Furniture Restoration, 96 Weller Street, Southwark.
COMMENTARY.
Took the chapterring off: nothing underneath.
The going train is very strange: it is needlessly complicated (with an extra wheel doubling the great wheel) and does not produce anything useful. For the original design it seems reasonable to assume that the lead-off was taken directly off the great wheel. The only way the 75 lifting teeth on the 2nd wheel can be made to produce minute-strike is by assuming that this wheel made 1 rev. in 1¼ hour, and the only relatively simple arrangement then becomes:
lower arbor having a friction wheel of 16 (meshing with the great wheel), a pinion of 5 driving an hourhand-wheel of 48 and a wheel of 25 driving a minutehand-wheel of 20. This will make the great wheel perform ca.0.27 revs. per hour; the escapement will produce ca.8640 beats per hour, and the duration will be ca.35.5 hours.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
BIBLIOGRAPHY (Pauline Wholey – 2019)
London 1958 Pendulum to Atom, Goldsmiths Hall, London, 1958. For this exhib. see: HJ 100 no.1199 (August 1958) 491; HJ 100 no.1202 (November 1958)
Ilbert (1958) Auction cat. coll. Courtenay A. Ilbert, London, Christie, 6 7 November 1958.
Dawson etc. (1958) P.G.Dawson, C.B.Drover, H.Quill, R.K.Foulkes, M.Hurst, L.Hurst, F.H.Knowles Brown & C.Clutton, `The Ilbert Collection of Clocks & Watches', AH 2 No.9 (December 1958) 161 178.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2017 08 Feb- 03 Sep, London, Science Museum, Robots
2017-2018 19 Oct-15 April, Manchester, Museum of Science and Industry, Robots
- Condition
- Latest: 3 (Jul 2015)
- Acquisition date
- 1958
- Acquisition notes
- The Ilbert Collection of clocks, prints and other related material was destined to be sold at Christie's auction house on 6th-7th November 1958. As a result of the generous donation of funds by Gilbert Edgar CBE the sale was cancelled and the material purchased privately from the beneficiaries of the Ilbert Estate.NL1Ilbert's watches were then acquired with further funds from Gilbert Edgar CBE, public donations and government funds. These were then registered in the series 1958,1201.
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1958,1006.2057
- Additional IDs
-
Previous owner/ex-collection number: CAI.2057 (Ilbert Collection)
