Joseph Knibb, the most famous and inventive member of th e as
celebrated Knibb clockmaking family was born circa 1640; he (four
was apprenticed to his cousin Samuel in about 1655 and, af ter clients
serving seven years, worked first at Oxford and then moved to the
London in 1670 where he was made Free of the Clockmake rs’
Towards
Company.
He must soon have built up a good reputation fo r
himself as it is recorded that he supplied a turret clock for
address
Windsor Castle in 1677 and payments were made to him in
1682 on behalf of King Charles II.
IV, requiring only two blows, rather than more usual IIII
blows).may
have had some difficulty persuading
accept this form of striking as examples are rarer
notation is, first, confusing.
end 17th century Joseph Knibb moved to
Hanslop in Buckinghamshire.A
few clocks with the Hanslop
are known but by the early years of the 18th century
Knibb had virtually retired; he died in December 1711.
No other maker produced such an intriguing variety of strik ing
longcase
and repeating mechanisms and perhaps the most interestin g
of these is the Roman system employed in this clock.
It is
centre
an ingenious method of accurately sounding the hours by a
smaller number of blows than the conventional system.
Tw o
originally
bells are used, the smaller of which indicates the Roman
I as displayed on the dial and the larger bell the Roman V.
current
The Roman X is indicated by two blows on the larger bell.
The greatest number of blows struck at any hour is four at 8
and 12 o’clock.
after
The advantage of the Roman system is that
the clock has to make only twenty-six blows in twelve hours
undergone
compared with seventy-eight blows on a conventional clock
The numeral for 4 o’clock, on a Roman striking clock, is sho wn
The present clock is one of very few recorded Roman striking
clock of three month duration by Joseph Knibb.It
is known that Knibb extended the decorative matting to the
his dials so that skeletonised chapter rings could be
fitted.It
wold appear that, in this case, such a chapter ring was
fitted as there spare holes beneath current
chapter ring and the spandrels have also been changed.Both
chapter ring and spandrels appear to be early
and it may be that this alteration was carried out very soon
clock was made possibly also by Knibb’s own
workshops.Whilst
the movement and dial of this clock have
extensive restoration, it remains remarkable and
rare survival of work by one of the most innovative horologists
of the late 17th century.
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