=Clockmakers of the Midlands.=--As typical of the fine work produced,
the bracket clock by Sam Watson, of Coventry, 1687, illustrated (p.
181), shows that the provincial maker was at that date in no way on a
lower plane than his contemporary in London. Other makers are Wilson
(Warwick), 1709; John Whitehurst (Derby), 1785--a fine long-case
clock by this maker is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; W.
Francis (Birmingham), and Thomas Wall (Birmingham), 1798. An example
by this maker is illustrated (p. 233), exhibiting a pastoral scene
painted in the lunette of the dial. This clock--in the possession of
the author--keeps excellent time although 120 years old, and has gone
for ten years without stopping.
Of Nottingham makers, the following names of early craftsmen are found
on watches: Isaac Alexander, about 1760 (a watch, gold inner case,
white dial; outer case of shagreen, with portrait of Charles Stuart
by J. June, 1745), and Thomas Hudson, about 1790 (silver, white dial;
outer case of tortoiseshell, with silver mounts). The name of Hen.
Page, Upper Broughton (Notts), is found on a brass clock, and John
Kirk was a maker at Epperstone and Skegby before he came to London in
1677 and was admitted as a member of the Clockmakers' Company. Among
the collection of watches at Nottingham Museum, apart from the two
above-mentioned, are a good many by makers of a later date, mainly of
the early nineteenth century: John Lingford, A. Shepperley, William
Young--all of Nottingham, and Geo. Stacey, Worksop.
Among the other watches on exhibition are an early one by Robert Dent
(Lincoln), No. 61, and a watch with gold case with chased _repoussé_
figures and ornament by J. Windmills, the celebrated London maker,
1671-1700.
This short list of Midland makers is obviously incomplete, and it is
to be hoped that some painstaking horologists will amplify it and do
honour to the makers and to the counties concerned.
=The Home Counties.=--Thomas Tompion (1671-1713), the famous London
maker, commenced at Bedford and ended at Bath. We have seen a brass
lantern clock engraved "Thos. Tonkink de Bedforde." This might very
well be one of his early clocks, and we know his great last triumph in
the famous long-case clock in the Pump Room at Bath. But apart from
this incidental connection of the "father of English watchmaking" with
the provinces, there stands Joseph Knibb, of Oxon, who was admitted to
the Clockmakers' Company of London in 1677. He worked in London for
the Court of Charles II. But he was established in Oxfordshire, as is
shown by the copper token he issued, with inscription "Joseph Knibb
Clockmaker in Oxon," and on reverse the dial of a clock with initials
I.K. in centre. We give an illustration of this token.
[Illustration]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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