Tennants Auctioneers
Lot 603
~ A Rare Year Going Mahogany Calendar and Zodiac Display Longcase Clock, signed Jno Walker, Newcastle, late 18th century, arched pediment, Corinthian capped columns, arched glazed trunk door, plinth with an inlaid panel, bracket feet, 15-inch one piece silvered brass dial with a Roman chapter, outer calendar chapter displaying date/months and signs of the zodiac and a large corresponding central calendar hand, finely engraved dial centre with an urn of flowers and signed, arch with moonphase aperture, large twin weight driven movement with an anchor escapement and striking on a bell, 242cm high, sold with a photocopy of this clock illustrated in the 1925 Archaeologia Aeliana article see illustrations It is understood that this clock was made about 1770 and was purchased by the Newcastle Corporation in 1885 and set up in the Mayor's Chamber in the Town Hall. From research, this clock is said to have been illustrated in an article first published in Archaeologia Aeliana in 1925 in a paper titled North Country Clockmakers of the 17th, 18th and 19th Centuries written by C.LReid, a Newcastle Goldsmith & Jeweller (Trading as Reid & Sons). The appendix which first appeared in the 1925 book states: ''Another 365 day clock, made about 1770, was purchased by the Newcastle Corporation in 1885 and set up in the Mayor's Chamber, in the Town Hall''. The article is said to include a few details of this clock and a few notes about the clockmaker John Walker. John Walker from London set up business in Newcastle Upon Tyne about 1754 and died in 1773. He is recorded as advertising himself as a clockmaker making all types of complicated mechanisms such as perpetual month going clocks and clocks with tidal dials. He is remembered for many good clocks and also an invention which he spent eight years perfecting, which was a wheel cutter that cut and rounded wheel teeth. Another feature of Walker's unusual clocks is that the strikework has a vertical worm-driven fly. 14.10.19 Case with cracks and chips in parts, trunk door with cracks, glass is cracked, plinth with inlay missing in parts, dial is discoloured and stained, movement looks complete, with pendulum and two weights.
