A fine William and Mary walnut longcase clock by William Clement

A fine William and Mary walnut longcase clock by William Clement, the brass movement of one month duration with five latched turned and finned pillars, with recoil anchor escapement and an outside countwheel and strike to bell, the 9 13/16in dial with gilt cast winged cherub spandrels, with a silvered chapter ring with Roman and Arabic numerals, with a matted centre with a date aperture and a central finely floral engraved boss, signed 'Gulielmus Clement Londini Fecit' to the lower edge of the dial, in an architectural case, with a moulded pediment above spiral twist columns with gilt brass Corinthian columns, above a quarter veneered trunk door and a conforming stepped plinth base, 202.7cm high.

William Clement is listed in Brian Loomes' The Early Clockmakers of Great Britain, and is noted as a very important clockmaker and one of the leading London clockmakers of the late 17th century. Born at Rotherhithe, he initially made anchors for the local shipbuilders. He turned to clockmaking when he moved to Southwark and eventually became Master of the London Clockmakers Company in 1694, having become a member in 1677. Clement was one of the earliest makers to apply the anchor escapement to clockwork, thus making the long pendulum practicable.

See British Museum no. 1958,1006.2058 for a wall clock by Clement with a very similar hood to this present lot.