λ A TORTOISESHELL LONGCASE CLOCK

λ A TORTOISESHELL LONGCASE CLOCK

BY JOHN MILLER, LONDON, LATE 17TH / EARLY18TH CENTURY AND LATER

the brass eight day movement with six knopped pillars, with an outside countwheel and an anchor escapement, striking on a bell, the backplate with an anchor-shaped cut-out, the brass dial with a silvered chapter ring with black Roman hours and fleurs-de-lys half hour markers and a narrow minute chapter ring with Arabic five minutes, the matted centre with a subsidiary seconds dial and date aperture, inside winged cherub head spandrels and an engraved border, the lower edge inscribed 'John Miller Londini Fecit', the hood with a square glazed door flanked by barley twist columns, the trunk with a rectangular door with a circular lenticle, on a panelled base with shaped feet, with two weights and a pendulum, the movement and case possibly associated

210cm high

Catalogue Note

John Miller was apprenticed to Samuel Knibb in 1667 and, on Knibb's death, to Knibb's cousin Joseph being declared Free of the Clockmakers' Company in 1674. The present movement shows a number of similarities to movements by Joseph Knibb including the thin plates, form of the turned pillars and the anchor escapement cut-out in the back plate.

See Sotheby's London, 17th May 2022, Furniture, Silver, Clocks and Ceramics, lot 13 for a related longcase clock by John Miller with a similar dial and movement features including the numerals and markers and anchor escapement cut-out in the backplate.