- Museum number
- 1964,0203.1
- Title
- Object: Cassiobury Park clock
- Description
-
Iron turret clock with verge escapement
cockle-shell punch-marks on top surface of centre bar of frame.
TRAIN-COUNT.
Going.
Gt wheel 96
Crown wheel 33/6
winding pinion 13
winding barrel wheel 48
Striking.
Gt wheel 80
Pin wheel 72/10
Fly 8
countwheel (internal teeth) 78
- Production date
- 1600-1620
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 12.20 inches (great wheel)
-
Diameter: 10.90 inches (pin-wheel)
-
Height: 30 inches
-
Length: 21.50 inches
-
Depth: 17 inches
- $Inscriptions
-
- 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The following text is the entry for this object from the unpublished catalogue of pre-pendulum clocks by John Leopold, former Assistant Keeper of Horology at the Museum.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.
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TURRET CLOCK FROM CASSIOBURY PARK, marked with a scallop-shell (ascribed to Leonard Tennant of London).
First half (perhaps 1st quarter) of the 17th century.
Bought from Mrs.Oakes, Bond Street.
SIGNATURE.
No signature or date. Twice stamped on the top of the upper horizontal crossbar of the frame with a mark representing a scallop-shell.
DESCRIPTION.
Posted frame movement, constructed entirely of steel. The frame consists of four vertical pillars and twelve horizontal bars; it is riveted at the corners, the central bars at top and bottom being held by tags in slots but not riveted. The pillars have a simple profile, reminiscent of Gothic clocks, and square knobs as finials. The wheels are pivoted in vertical bars, of which the outer ones are wedged at top and bottom; the two inner bars are each held by a projection fitting into a hole at the bottom, and by a wedge at the top. At the sides there are another two bars, wedged over the projections of the horizontal centre bars; these hold the locking detend, which is loosely secured at one end by a C-clip, as well as the hammer lifting piece.
There are three filled holes in the top horizontal bar on the going train side: these very probably relate to a pendulum conversion. There is also a filled rectangular hole in the side bar that carries the lifting piece, of which the purpose is unclear.
All the wheels are riveted to their arbors except the great wheel of the going, which is wedged. All train wheels run in brass bushes.
Going train.
Traincount:
6 ║ 96
── ║ ── 33 (x 2)
12-hour ← 72 ║ 6
Great wheel: one of the crossings has near the band the remains of the original pin for unlocking the striking. The arbor is fixed to the wheel; the wooden barrel has a steel pipe, which mooves around the arbor. The barrel has a face click acting on the crossings of the wheel. The original capstan has had a band of 48 teeth fitted, meshing with a lantern pinion of 12 to produce geared winding (key-wound on the side of the striking).
Gallows, top support and foliot replaced.
Strike release wheel 1) and its pinion later (see Conversions).
Striking train.
Train count:
8 ║ 80 72
── ║ ── ──
12-hour ← 78 ║ 10 8
Great wheel: 8 hammer lifting pins. Split construction: the wooden barrel carries the winding square and has a pipe to accomodate the other end of the arbor, which is fixed to the wheel. The barrel has a horse-shoe click acting on the crossings of the wheel.
2nd wheel: stud for locking.
Fly: the arbor carries a long stud for warning. Outside fly of two wings mounted loosely on the arbor and connected over a ratchet wheel of 8.
Countwheel: positioned in the centre of the movement. Retaining clip replaced.
Warning detend pivoted in arms secured to the frame; the unlocking arm has been bent and extended to reach the strike-release wheel (originally it pointed down to the great wheel), and the arm for warning has a brass roller (later). The locking detend is hinged to one vertical bar and held in position by a projection which fits into a slot in the opposite bar.
Warned striking with unlocking originally by a pin on the great wheel of the going (now by the twelve pins on the strike-release wheel), warning on the fly and locking on the 2nd wheel of the striking.
CONVERSIONS.
At some time the clock was converted to pendulum; the clearest sign of this are three filled holes in the top horizontal bar on the going train side, which will have secured the bracket for the pendulum. Perhaps at the same time the winding for the going train was altered: a toothed ring was welded to the capstan and a pinion added to produce geared winding.
The clock was re-converted before 1927: Howgrave-Graham (1927) Pl. XLVIII fig.1 shows it in its present condition. The conversion was almost certainly done by Webster. The number of teeth on this wheel, 33, was undoubtedly copied from the Dover Castle clock. Unfortunately the new scape wheel was cut with the teeth facing the wrong way, which necessitated reversing the direction of the train (the face-click of the great wheel barrel must have been changed at the same time). As a result the original release of the striking could no longer function, and so Webster added the present strike-release wheel driven by the great wheel of the going train. For this new construction he utilized the extended suare on the great wheel arbor and two holes in the vertical bar which undoubtedly originally accomodated parts of the lead-off work, thus creating the impression that the clock never had a dial. Webster clearly did not tell Howgrave-Graham everything about the reconversion, only that he had added the indicator for the strike-release wheel and that he had painted the numerals on the wheel (Howgrave-Graham [1927] 286).
Since then nothing has been done to the clock, except that in 1975 an alternative hammer lifting piece was made so that the clock could be displayed more conveniently.
MEASUREMENTS.
Frame: length - 545 mm
width - 440 mm
hight - 560 mm
Distance between the bars: going train - 240 mm
striking train - 240 mm
PERFORMANCE.
Going train: escapement - 1,056 beats per hour.
great wheel - 1 rev. per hour.
Striking train: 9.75 revs. in 12 hours.
The barrels now revolve in the same direction (the direction of the going train has been reversed, see Conversions).
HISTORY AND PROVENANCE.
Found "amongst the lumber at the sale at Cassiobury Park" near Watford, Hertfordshire (Robertson [1931] 72). The original house was built in the years 1545-1556; it was rebuilt in the 1670's, and pulled down and a new house built in ca.1800. This last was demolished early in the 20th century.
The clock was bought by Percy Webster, who found it as "a mass of rusting iron" (Howgrave-Graham [1927] 285). This was probably in 1922, when the contents of Cassiobury Park were sold. Certainly Webster owned the clock by 1926, when visitors to his house saw "an old turret clock. We suspect that this old representative holds a very warm place in Mr. Webster's heart. It is almost a replica of the one in the Science Department of the South Kensington Museum, the date of which is given as 1350" (Webster [1926] 52). Webster had the clock re-converted to foliot and made the present strike-release (see Conversions). Percy Webster died 1938; the clock remained with his son Malcolm, who died in 1953.
Percy Webster sale (1954); bought for £ 110 by James Oakes of Duke Street, St.James's (later of New Bond Street). Oakes died in 1961.
In 1964 Mrs. Oakes sold the clock to the Museum for £ 350; reg. 1964,2-3,1.
COMMENTARY.
After its discovery in 1922(?) it was soon realised that this clock was closely related to the one from Dover Castle (Science Museum, London), and it was widely believed that both dated from the 14th century (even though Howgrave-Graham [1927] 311 expressed this opinion very cautiously and Robertson [1931] 73 was convinced that these clocks dated from the 17th century). Webster thought that the mark represented a female face, but Howgrave-Graham described it more accurately as a cockle shell (Howgrave-Graham [1927] 286). Eventually five more clocks marked with the scallop-shell mark were found: St Peter's, Buntingford, Hertfordshire; Clandon Park, Surrey; St John the Baptist, Corby, Northamptonshire; St Andrew's, Orwell, Cambridgeshire; Quickwoods Farm, Hertfordshire.
For this group of clocks marked with a scallop shell see Evans (1999/2000). He convincingly identified the maker as Leonard Tennant of London. He noted that this is the only group of related turret movements known to exist in England, which argues almost a monopoly position for the maker; moreover, it is likely that the clocks were produced in an important centre, and the distribution of the surviving clocks (as well as of some related but unmarked ones) makes likely that this centre was London. Research into the clocks of the city of London during the 17th century revealed that only Leonard Tennant qualifies. He is first mentioned in 1606 and died in 1646, but it is curious to note that he is not mentioned in connection with turret clocks after 1628. The mark he put on his clocks seems to derive from the arms of the Joiners' Company, of which Tennant was a prominent member.
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1) The back of the crossings of the strike-release wheel shows faint traces of the action of a face-click; it is possible therefore that this wheel was originally the great wheel of a small turret clock.
Check the bush of the greatwheel striking: is this brass or steel?
Check the measurements.
Check Drummond Robertson in WC Febr.1932.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY (Pauline Wholey – 2019)
Webster (1926) 51 2.
Howgrave Graham (1927) 283, 284 286, pl.LXXVII figs.1 3.
Robertson (1931) 72-3.
Exhib.cat. London 1952 no.4.
Cat. Webster (1954) no.78 (bought by James Oakes, for £ 110).
Exhib.cat. London 1955 no. p.49.
Britten 7 (1956) 13.
HJ 103 no.1235 (August 1961) 476.
Tait (1968) 17 20, pl.1 4.
Robinson (1970) 518.
Verlet (1970) 15.
Beeson 1 (1971) 9, 51.
Beeson 2 (1977) XV, 60, 61.
Smith (1979) 248.
Tait (1983) 6 7.
Dale (1992) 30.
Evans (1999-2000).
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The Cassiobury clock is one of a group of about six of which the most complete and original example is the so-called "Dover Castle Clock" now at the Science Museum. That is the only member of the group which retains its original foliot and the upper foliot potence is marked on the underside with the monogram RL,
believed to be involved in the production of this group. One other member - the Clandon clock - has the upper potence which has been bent round and hammered to form the inner bearing for the verge; it too has the mark RL though flattened. A plasticene cast of the RL mark on the Dover clock was made by JLE c.1975/6 and is housed in AM/11.
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Text from 'Clocks', by David Thompson, London, 2004, p. 60.
Leonard Tennant
Turret clock
London, c. 1610
Height 56.5 cm, width 44 cm, depth 56 cm
To this day, the first maker of a mechanical clock and the place and date where it was made remains a mystery. There is however, documentary evidence for the existence of such clocks at the end of the thirteenth century that provides interesting information regarding the new clocks that were being installed in cathedrals, abbeys and churches around Europe. As early as 1283 a clock is known to have existed in the Priory of the Austin Canons in Dunstable. Two surviving clocks from this embryonic period are those made for Salisbury and Wells Cathedrals in 1386 and 1389 respectively. The former can still be found in the cathedral itself, while the latter is now in the Science Museum in London. They were both made by a group of clockmakers, Johannes and Williemus Vrieman and Johannes Lietyt, invited from Delft in the Low Countries by Bishop Ralph Ergum for the specific purpose of making the clocks, first at Salisbury and then at Wells.
The design of the turret clock changed little over the following three centuries and this particular example from the early seventeenth century has characteristics similar to clocks made for churches in the medieval period. It is a weight-driven clock with two separate gear trains mounted side by side. The going train is controlled by a verge escapement with an oscillating foliot with adjustable weights. The striking train is controlled by a count-wheel mounted within the frame of the clock. Over the years the clock has been modified and restored a number of times, but in its present state it closely resembles its original conception as a seventeenth-century tower clock with verge escapement and weighted foliot. The clock is marked on one of the top frame bars with a scallop shell and is one of a group of seven clocks which have now been identified either with that mark or with a monogram RL, for Robert Ludlam. The scallop-shell clocks were made by a London clockmaker, Leonard Tennant, who was a member of the Joiners' Company. He is known to have been working in 1606 and had a long list of apprentices who were trained by him between 1606 and 1641. Leonard Tennant died in 1646 leaving his 'great anvil and the great Bickhorne and two great vices' to his cousin Joseph Tennant, having been the head of perhaps the most important turret clockmaking business of the first half of the seventeenth century.
This example from Tennant's workshops was installed in Cassiobury Park, a country house near Watford in Hertfordshire. The house was demolished in the early part of the twentieth century and the clock passed into the collector's market. It was finally purchased by the Museum in 1964.
Purchased from James Oakes in 1964.
- Location
- On display (G38/od)
- Condition
-
Latest: 3 (Jun 2018)
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4 (Jul 2017) wooden barrels in need of attention
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3 (Jul 2015)
- Acquisition date
- 1964
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1964,0203.1
