A FINE AND VERY RARE MONTH-GOING 'PHASE ONE' SPRING CLOCK WITH ROMAN STRIKE AND TIC-TAC ESCAPEMENTJoseph Knibb, London circa 1675
The case:
Ebony veneered on an oak carcass with shallow caddy top with tied bud handle over four ball finials with turned budes and a moulded cornice, the front door with silk-backed sound fret and twin mounts, each side with a long glazed panel, the rear door with central glazed panel, on a moulded base with block feet.

The dial:
Nine inches square and cornered by winged cherub's head spandrels, the silvered chapter ring with Arabic minute track encircling the Roman numerals and fleur de lise half hour markers (the 4 denoted as IV to indicate the Roman strike system), with an inner quarter hour track, the very finely matted centre with chamfered date aperture below XII, signed along the lower edge below the chapter ring, with blued steel pierced and sculpted hands, and secured to the movement by four latched dial feet.


The movement
The plates just 1.75mm in thickness and united by eight slender knopped pillars, all latched to the frontplate, the substantial barrels with slim chains to the fusees, the five-wheel going train terminating in a tic-tac escapement, the pallets spanning two teeth the strike acting on a pair of bells and operated via a countwheel on the backplate.

The backplate
Framed by a single line border and centred with the copperplate signature 'Joseph Knibb, Londini Fecit' within a foliate cartouche with bud terminal, above a pair of engraved branches with foliate scrolls above.

Together with two case keys, and a brass winding key with pierced foliate top section, secured by two British Museum tags.
42cms (16ins) high.注脚Provenance
A private Scottish collection
Bobinet at Grosvenor House Antiques Fair, mid 1990s.

Comparable clocks are in the National Trust collection at Lyme Park and the Lord Harris collection at Belmont.

Similar examples by Joseph Knibb were sold in these rooms:

14 December 2010, lot 96, a Dutch striking example with silver skeletonised dial sold for £153,600

28 June 2011, lot 95, a Roman striking example with tic-tac escapement sold for £126,000