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Early Clocks
Of
Wigton, c1695
Dating from the early 1690s this is Sanderson's earliest known surviving 8-day clock to come to light so far, thus making it an historically important clock for the Wigton region. The eleven-inch square dial has verses to the top two corners and to the dial centre. The chapter ring markings, consists mainly of meeting arrowheads and ' C ' scrolls (typical for this period). The outside chapter ring numeral markings have lovely curly tails to the 5s and the letter S (strike) which is a rally nice early feature. The chapter ring is signed ' John Sanderson of Wigton Fecit '. The date calendar is interesting in that it is set within an ' eye ' just like the primitive John Ismay clock which is also illustrated on this site. The dial centre is very busy having ringed winding holes, ringed seconds ring, ringed date calendar and ringing around the centre arbour. Below the seconds ring there is the verse ' Memento Mori ' ( Bear Death in Mind) and in the top two corners there are verses which read ' As time and cllock and all things pass away ' and ' A mend your lives for here wee must not stay '. Sanderson has also signed his name on the reverse side of the chapter ring. It is cased in a panelled early oak case of heavily built construction and was possibly made to match a panelled room. Click here to view article. Private collection, Photographed by Lee Borrett.
Wigton Fecit, c1700
The interesting religious 30-hour clock illustrated here, was made by John Sanderson of Wigton from around c1700. The polished dial centre is deeply engraved with Sanderson's well known religious verse which reads: 'Remember man, That Die thou must, And after that, To judgement just'. The absence of spandrels and the heavily built brass lantern type movement are both typical features of Sanderson's early work. Apart from one of the lantern rear feet being replaced at some point in it's past the movement is in a superb original condition throughout including retaining all it's original wheel-work and collets. The clock is housed in an interesting religious early oak longcase with hanging barley twist pillars and has no true base. The first owners initials and a date of 1703 (probably a marriage date) is nailed onto a front panel, with what appears to be the symbol of a cross. Click on image to view article. Private collection, Photographed by Lee Borrett.
Wigton Fecit, c1700
The word ‘sleeper’ is occasionally used in the antiques trade to describe an item which having recently come to light has perhaps spent many years being stored away collecting dust in the home such as a loft or basement. It may have been stored outside the house in a shed or barn and can sometimes be found in a very dirty or tarnished condition. As a collector, it always excites me when I am offered a clock being described as a sleeper because I know there’s a good chance that it has not recently been tampered with. The subject of this article is about a very interesting early 30-hour (Memento Mori) religious versed wall clock made by John Sanderson of Wigton in about c1700. It is fully illustrated and shown below in it's ‘As Found’ condition. The stunning early John Sanderson wall clock illustrated survives today in an extremely dirty and tarnished condition throughout. It has a handsome 10.75-inch square brass dial with a busy dial centre featuring a penny moon that is set within the middle of a deeply engraved Memento Mori religious verse that reads ‘Remember Man Die thou must and after that to judgement just’. There is also a square date calendar to the lower part of the dial centre below the verse and there is ringing to the inside and outside of the chapter ring. Click on image to view article. Private collection, Photographed by Lee Borrett.
Wigton Fecit, c1705
The wonderfully interesting early religious 30-hour wall clock illustrated here was made by Richard Sill of Wigton who was an important member of the 'Wigton School of Clockmaking' headed by John Sanderson. Dating around c1705 the polished dial centre is deeply engraved with John Sanderson's favourite religious verse which reads: 'Remember man, That Die thou must, And after that, To judgement just'. The absence of spandrels and the heavily built brass lantern type movement are both typical features of the school. The penny moon in the dial centre is a rare feature on these early Wigton clocks. Click here to view article. Private collection, Photographed by Lee Borrett.
Oulton Fecit, c1705
The fascinating primitive 30-hour clock illustrated here is particularly rustic and interesting. Dating from around c1715, the clock was made by John Ismay of Oulton - who possibly made it whilst he was serving his apprenticeship to John Ogden - and before he had actually finished his training. It is John Ismay's earliest surviving clock to come to light so far - pre dating any of his Wigton clocks and is an historically important clock for the region. After serving his apprenticeship under Ogden, Ismay worked with John Sanderson at Wigton and became an important member of The Wigton 'School' of Clockmaking. He made this clock using crude materials with major casting faults to both movement and dial. Ismay probably not only made the clock himself, but also engraved the dial as well. The clock is very primitive and the chapter ring markings have been so badly spaced out and poorly executed by Ismay that I find it hard to believe that he actually sold it on the open market at the time, but could have made the clock in-house for his own use. The polished dial has the verse 'Memento Mori' in the top two corners. It has a heavily built iron and brass lantern type movement. The clock is housed in a primitive oak longcase. However, originally this clock was probably caseless and made by Ismay as a wall clock to just sit on a simple wall bracket and show off its massive brass movement until a later owner decided to spend the money to house the clock in a case. Click here to view article. Private collection, Photographed by Lee Borrett.
Wigton Fecit, c1710
The extremely rare and unrestored early 18th century religious 30-hour illustrated here, was made by Henry Sheppard of Wigton and to date is his only known clock to have come to light. The polished dial centre is engraved with John Sanderson's well known religious verse which reads: 'Remember man, That Dye thou must, And after that, To judgement just', showing that Henry Sheppard clearly had links to the Wigton 'School' of Clockmaking. The brass lantern type movement is typical of the Wigton 'School' and survives in a very original condition throughout including retaining all it's original wheel-work and collets. The clock is housed in an interesting unrestored oak green lacquered case with caddy top and finials. Close inspection reveals that this Henry Sheppard wall clock was adapted (married up) to this case in about c1740 and at the same time the spandrels were added to the dial which match the grandness of the case in the fashion of the day. This is typical of what happened to many of these early religious wall clocks where they started life on a simple wall bracket to keep the cost down and show off their brass lantern type movements and then have been cased later when the then owner could afford to do so. This original Henry Sheppard wall clock has probably spent the last 285 years housed in this green lacquered case. Click here to view article. Private collection, Photographed by Lee Borrett.
Wigton Fecit, c1710
The fabulous early religious versed clock illustrated here, is an exceptionally rare example by John Ismay of Wigton and is probably his earliest known signed Wigton clock (not confusing it with his earlier Oulton clock). Originally made to just sit on a wall bracket to show off its large brass lantern movement - it survives today in a very original condition throughout. It is housed in its original rustic pine longcase which was probably made within about 20 years of the clocks making of c1718. At the same time of being housed in its pine case, spandrels were added to the four corners and in doing so - hid the verse MEMENTO MORI in the top two corners. There is also a very rare verse engraved to the dial centre that reads:- ' Shun Sin least thou Lament, When Precious Time is Spent, And Death to the(e) is Sent, No Time then to Repent.' - From surviving known clocks by John Ismay - we now know that he numbered his earliest Wigton clocks. Here we can see that he numbered this example No.1 on the back of the dial - which is hidden by the date calendar wheel. Other 30-hour clocks by John Ismay of Wigton have come to light bearing the numbers 5 and 7. Click here to view article. Private collection, Photographed by Lee Borrett.
Fecit, hoc Horologi
Shown here is a very rare 8-day longcase c1700, signed ‘Joseph Calvert Fecit hoc Horologium ', which means 'Joseph Calvert made this clock '. This is not the method of signing used by a regular clockmaker, even in these early times, and as it happens many things about this clock tell us that this was a private individual who was probably making an eight day clock for himself for the first time. From family knowledge of the clock's provenance, it has been established that Joseph Calvert was born in 1654 and spent his life as a yeoman farmer at Longthwaite, a hamlet just south of Wigton, where he died in 1728. Longthwaite was about a quarter of a mile from Tiffenthwaite, where John Sanderson lived and worked, and it is known from further research that the two families were acquainted. Joseph Calvert was a signatory to the inventory taken in 1690 on the death of John Sanderson senior, uncle of John Sanderson the clockmaker, who was then only nineteen years old, Calvert being thirty-six. So, Calvert and Sanderson the clockmaker knew each other. It is hardly surprising then, when Joseph Calvert, decided to make himself a clock or two, that he should ask young John Sanderson, a trained clockmaker, to help. We can......Click here to view article. Private collection, Photographed by Lee Borrett.
Wigton Fecit, c1710
Illustrated here is a fascinating early 18th century two handed 30-hour religious versed wall clock by John Sanderson of Wigton, which was made between around c1710-c1715. The nine inch solid-sheet brass dial with square box date calendar has an applied chapter ring with floating fleur-de-lis half hour markers and is signed John Sanderson, Wigton Fecit. The deeply engraved multiple Memento Mori religious verses to the dial are particularly interesting. Although the verses are different to each other, they are all warning us that man should be mindful of death and repent his sins before it’s too late! The verses from left to right and across the top of dial read: - ‘ Our days and years here will Quickly spend, Eternity will come that has no end. The verse to the dial centre reads ‘As time and clock and all things pass a way, A mend your lives for here wee must not stay’. To the bottom left hand corner the verse reads ‘ Esto Memor Mortis’ and to the bottom right hand corner it reads ‘ Libile Tempus a bit ‘. Click here to view article. Private collection, Photographed by Lee Borrett.
Wigton Fecit, c1715
The John Sanderson clock shown here is in a wonderfully original and untouched condition throughout and is a very desirable example. It is a beautifully All-Over engraved tulip dial themed 30-hour wall on bracket clock with religious verse and was probably made by John Sanderson around c1715. To the top of the dial centre there is a single tulip flower with an interesting calendar mouth just below. Then from the middle of the centre to the lower part John Sanderson’s well known religious verse is beautifully engraved ‘Remember Man Die thou must, And after that to judgement just’. Then instead of ringing like the earlier example shown, there is a kind of wriggle decoration that is engraved all around the inside and outside of the chapter ring. The dial corners are deeply engraved with one large and two small tulip flowers in each of the four corners and these are all linked together by a flowing foliage design that branches out around the outer edges of the dial. The chapter ring has interesting trident type half-hour markers with arrow heads and is signed at the bottom John Sanderson with no place name. This suggests to me that Sanderson may have sold this clock at a marketplace outside of Wigton. Click here to view article. Private collection, Photographed by Lee Borrett.
Wigton Fecit, c1698
The interesting unrestored late 17th century 30-hour longcase clock illustrated here in an unrestored condition, was made from around c1698 by John Sanderson of Wigton and is housed in a primitive oak case with back splat. The two-handed 11 inch square brass dial has John Sanderson’s well-known religious verse deeply engraved to the dial centre which reads:- ‘Remember man die thou must, And after that to Judgement Just’. The verse has been engraved around a square date calendar which is located to the lower part of the dial centre and tells us that Sanderson cut-out the date calendar square before he engraved the dial centre. The clock a housed in a wonderfully primitive pegged oak case with back splat and external iron blacksmith hinges to both trunk door and hood door. Click here to view article. Private collection, Photographed by Lee Borrett.
Skelton Fecit, c1698
A very interesting clock dial (only) signed Redge Buckele Skelton fecit. The dial has a half-quarter band and a memento mori motto in the middle of the dial and candle half-hour markings. Discovered by Dr William Linnard, the dial has clear links to the Wigton 'School' of Clockmaking including the deeply engraved religious verse to the dial centre and the way the dial was fixed to its movement.
Click here image to view article. Private collection, Photographed by Lee Borrett.
Oulton Fecit, c1698
The primitive brass dial (only) illustrated here is most interesting. It was made by John Ismay of Oulton (near Wigton) from around c1720. It has the religious verse 'memento Mori' (Bear Death in Mind), engraved to the dial centre along with some cup-and-ringing. However, to the top two corners there are also winged-cherubs that are up in the clouds and looking down whilst blowing a trumpet and shooting arrows from a bow. The trident half-hour markings are detached and the dial is signed on the chapter ring 'John Ismay, Oulton Fecit' (Made it). Click here to view article. Private collection, Photographed by Lee Borrett.
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