99th Auction
2019/5/11
Lot 365
Sir John Bennett, 65 & 64 Cheapside, London, Height 620 mm, circa 1873
A remarkable heavy industrial clock with seafaring motives, with compass, barometer and thermometer and quarter self-strike with musical movement
Case: gilt brass on wooden base, hidden drawers. Dial: silvered. Movm.: brass, 9 hammers / 8 bells, 3 x chain/fusee, lever escapement, three-arm brass balance.
This extravagant ornamental table clock was given to Benjamin and Nancy Barrowclough of Mirfield in England by their children, on the occasion of their 50th wedding anniversary. A solid, gilt piece of rope is the main feature in this nautical motif with fishes, buckets, a barrel and an anchor, intended to honour the merchant navy. Four different tunes are played on eight bells on the quarter hour. The large original key is hidden in one of the four drawers of the clock.
A little extra detail:
The actor Patrick Stewart, famous for playing Jean Luc Picard, Captain of the Enterprise in the "Star Trek - The Next Generation" series, was born in Mirfield in England as a great-grandchild of the Barrowclough family.
Sir John Bennett (1814-1897) came from a watchmaking family and he and his brother took over the family workshop when their father died early. Bennett started his own workshop in 1847 in Cheapside; he was a clever and marketing oriented businessman, who caught the eye of the public during the Great Exhibition of 1851, when he booked the title page of the exhibition catalogue as well as stand no. 1. His shop windows were decorated with pocket watches and modern advertising slogans and when the "Big Ben" clock was installed in 1860, Bennett build a similar clock with an automaton and presented it in his window. The display attracted so many people that the police hat to control the traffic around his shop. The clock was later bought by Henry Ford and is still displayed in the Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. Charles Dickens was also one of Bennett's customers. John Bennett was knighted by Queen Victoria in St. Paul's Cathedral in 1871; he was also elected Sheriff of London at a later date.
A remarkable heavy industrial clock with seafaring motives, with compass, barometer and thermometer and quarter self-strike with musical movement
Case: gilt brass on wooden base, hidden drawers. Dial: silvered. Movm.: brass, 9 hammers / 8 bells, 3 x chain/fusee, lever escapement, three-arm brass balance.
This extravagant ornamental table clock was given to Benjamin and Nancy Barrowclough of Mirfield in England by their children, on the occasion of their 50th wedding anniversary. A solid, gilt piece of rope is the main feature in this nautical motif with fishes, buckets, a barrel and an anchor, intended to honour the merchant navy. Four different tunes are played on eight bells on the quarter hour. The large original key is hidden in one of the four drawers of the clock.
A little extra detail:
The actor Patrick Stewart, famous for playing Jean Luc Picard, Captain of the Enterprise in the "Star Trek - The Next Generation" series, was born in Mirfield in England as a great-grandchild of the Barrowclough family.
Sir John Bennett (1814-1897) came from a watchmaking family and he and his brother took over the family workshop when their father died early. Bennett started his own workshop in 1847 in Cheapside; he was a clever and marketing oriented businessman, who caught the eye of the public during the Great Exhibition of 1851, when he booked the title page of the exhibition catalogue as well as stand no. 1. His shop windows were decorated with pocket watches and modern advertising slogans and when the "Big Ben" clock was installed in 1860, Bennett build a similar clock with an automaton and presented it in his window. The display attracted so many people that the police hat to control the traffic around his shop. The clock was later bought by Henry Ford and is still displayed in the Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. Charles Dickens was also one of Bennett's customers. John Bennett was knighted by Queen Victoria in St. Paul's Cathedral in 1871; he was also elected Sheriff of London at a later date.
estimated
13.000—25.000 €
Price realized
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