Joseph Knibb was an outstanding clockmaker in London in the generation that included such illustrious names as John Fromanteel and Thomas Tompion. The familiar longcase clock exemplified here was developed in England in the latter part of the seventeenth century in response to improvements in the technology of the pendulum. The older narrow-trunked case gave way to a form of case with wider proportions, which allowed the new, seconds-beating long pendulum, at slightly more than 39 inches in length, to swing undisturbed. The gilded and matted dial of this splendid clock has a silvered-brass skeleton chapter of hours typical of Knibb’s finest work. Knibb’s movement goes for eight days on a single winding, is composed of three trains, and strikes the hours and quarters on separate bells. The front plate of the movement is removable in three sections so that any of the three trains can be separately exposed, thus making repairs by clockmakers considerably easier.
