CHRISTOPHER PINCHBECK, LONDON. CIRCA 1730

Details

An important George I walnut astronomical longcase clock of month duration
Christopher Pinchbeck, London. Circa 1730
The feather-banded case with brass-capped columns to the hood supporting a breakarch top with delicate pierced walnut frets, the arched trunk door with reflected breakarch moulding above, on double-footed plinth, the dial signed CHR PINCHBECK LONDON on a silvered plaque engraved with foliage and flanked by resplendant eagles, the silvered Roman and Arabic chapter ring with pierced blued steel hands, matted centre, silvered seconds ring, calendar aperture, the four silvered spandrel rings for;
Lower left: the months.
Lower right: the day and it ruling deity.
Upper left: the position of the sun and the southing of 23 stars.
Upper right: the moon's position in the Zodiac.
Main ring: The phases of the moon with the time of high tide in 29 European ports and the lunar date.
Strike/silent lever above 60, the gilt foliate spandrels embellished with dolphins and Indian masks and with further foliate engraving to the sides, the very substantial movemement with five robust ringed pillars, anchor escapement, rack strike on a bell above the plates, the upper subsidiaries receiving continual spiral drive taken from the motionwork with unusual helical gearing, later seatboard and restored cheekboards
7ft. 7in. (237cm.) high

Literature

Illustrated
Derek Roberts, British Longcase Clocks, Schiffer, 1990, p.88, figs.113 A & B

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
H. Alan Lloyd, The Collector's Dictionary of Clocks, Barnes, 1964, p.143, fig.375 & 376.
Tom Robinson, The Longcase Clock, Antique Collectors' Club, 1981, pp.231-4, figs & 53

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis

Lot Essay

Pinchbeck, Christopher (1670-1732). He was not a member of the Clockmakers Company. A notice in Applebee's Weekly Journal on 8 July 1727 announces a change of premises: 'inventor and maker of the famous Astronomico-Musical Clocks is removed from St. George's Court, St.James's Lane, to the sign of the Astronomico-Musical clock in Fleet Street nr. the Leg Tavern...' (see Brian Loomes, The Early Clockmakers of Great Britain, NAG Press, 1981, p.439). It is, however, for his invention of 'Pinchbeck gold' (an alloy of four parts copper and three parts zinc) that he is perhaps best known. He made clocks for Louis XIV reputedly for the enormous sum of £1500 and for other European Royals and an astronomical clock by him is in Buckingham Palace.
As the complexity of the present clock well demonstrates, Pinchbeck was an ingenious individual and as well as making clocks (he had a particular penchant for astronomical and music work) he made musical automata and organs. His son, also Christopher (1710-1781) appears to have inherited this ingenuity and supplied the four-sided astronomical clock to George III (in 1768) which now resides in the music room at Buckingham Palace. Christopher Junior seems to have been equally ambivalent about membership of the Clockmakers Company, not joining until the age of 71.

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