We are enormously excited and hugely privileged to be selling the most important private collection of English clocks ever to come onto the market in the UK - to be sold over several catalogued selling exhibitions from our Winchester premises.
Many of you will know Dr Taylor, or heard of his ubiquitous kettle and motor switches - in fact, it is highly likely you are using one of his inventions every day. John’s horological passions have never been confined to a single area; innovation and quality has governed every acquisition, with many of the items needing little introduction, as their significance is both recognised and well documented.
The John C Taylor Collection - Part I
 To kick off, we have produced a 240 page full-colour printed catalogue of 46 exhibits, normally costing £35 but FREE to our subscribers on request from info@cartermarsh.com. The Part I catalogue is also available online and contains a cross-section of extraordinary and interesting horological items, reading like a Who’s Who of English clock and watchmaking, and ranging from iconic examples by Fromanteel, East, Tompion and Graham, through to outstanding works by, amongst others, Knibb, Jones, Quare, Mudge and Earnshaw – with prices ranging from £2,750 to £3,500,000.
 We will be opening first at 26 Bruton St, Mayfair for one week only, by kind courtesy of Simon Phillips of the English furniture specialists, Ronald Phillips Ltd - showing Highlight exhibits from the Part I catalogue, together with some additional items to be included in future exhibitions.
Save the two Selling Exhibition dates: - Wed 23rd June to Wed 30th June 2021: ‘Highlights from The John C Taylor Collection’ at Ronald Phillips Ltd. 26 Bruton St. W1J 6QL - opening times: 10am to 6pm, every day
- Sat 3rd July to Sat 24th July 2021: ‘The John C Taylor Collection - Part I’ at 32A The Square, Winchester - opening times: 10am to 5pm, every day except Sundays
Now for just a few of the juicy bits that will be on offer, with links to our website when you click on the images…
 The Spanish Tompion circa 1702-4 is a most remarkable turtleshell and gilt brass mounted Grande Sonnerie striking royal bracket clock. It was commissioned during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714) for presentation by Queen Anne to Archduke Charles von Habsburg, the son of the Holy Roman Emperor, and the Grand Alliance’s pretender to the Spanish throne. Tompion was tasked with creating a brand new style of English clock with the most complicated striking facility possible, Daniel Marot (1661-1752) designed the spectacular case, which features the first true break-arch clock format and, as the archduke was styled as ‘Carlos III of Spain’, his clock celebrated this with indications in Spanish. In December 1703, Charles von Habsburg made a state visit to Queen Anne in London, when this royal gift was commissioned. However, ‘Carlos III’ was never to be installed on the Spanish throne, the French Bourbon candidate won out under the Treaties of Utrecht (1713-1715).
 The exquisite and early Time Museum Knibb is also full Grande Sonnerie striking, and absolutely ingenious for circa 1672. Until this example was made by Joseph Knibb, the few highly prized clocks of this complexity were all large and immovable objects. Clearly borne out of his customer’s desire to be able to carry and ‘show off’ his new impressive clock around the house, this Grande Sonnerie striking movement, whereby the time, quarters and hours operate from just two trains is of uniquely small size. No other clockmaker appears to have attempted a truly portable two-train Grande Sonnerie table clock again until Tompion, in a commission for Charles II, some five years later.
 The Scottish watchmaker David Ramsay was trained in France, coming to London in circa 1610 by specific invitation of the Scottish King James I of England. In 1631, Ramsay was made the first Master of the newly founded Clockmakers’ Company. Although he was based in London, it is pointedly signed David Ramsay Scotus me Fecit, re-affirming his proud Scottish roots, as well as his favour with the Scottish king. This circa 1620 example is now 400 years old and one of only four Ramsay watches known outside museums; the last of these to come on the market was a royal example, commissioned by James I.
 This unique and exquisite miniature horizontal table clock by Daniel Quare, circa 1700, was probably originally destined for the boudoir of a continental grandee’s wife or mistress. At only five inches square, the hour strike can be switched off at night so the restless owner could make use of its pull-quarter repeating feature without fumbling to light a candle, but still safe in the knowledge that its alarm would awaken the fortunate recipient, perhaps for her next liaison with her generous benefactor.
 Continuing the theme of sleep, or the lack thereof, the Hurst Night Longcase clock circa 1669 is a unique early long pendulum survivor. The first English ‘night clock’ was recorded by Samuel Pepys in 1664 in the bed-chamber of Charles II’s wife, Catherine of Braganza - but having a naked flame enclosed in a wooden box, these clocks have an inherent danger of catching alight, and after the Great Fire of 1666 it is not altogether surprising that demand was relatively small! This is one of only two examples that survive with their original long cases; being from the 1660s, this one is 20 years earlier than the other by Tompion, and it has an absolutely ingenious ‘silent’ mode that switches off the hour striking when one ‘precariously’ lights up and inserts the oil lamp.
The John C Taylor Collection Part II‘An Inventor’s Passion for Time’ Carter Marsh & Co present the second part of the world’s most significant private collection of English clocks
An important Selling Exhibition in Winchester from 6th to 27th November 2021 |
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Assembled over several decades by the multi-millionaire inventor and philanthropist, Dr John C Taylor OBE, the collection features the finest examples from the historical clock and watchmaking world - some of supreme historical importance and museum quality, but also including exceedingly rare, unusual, and surprisingly inexpensive items. Many of you already know about Dr Taylor and his ubiquitous kettle and motor switches - in fact, it is highly likely you are using one of his inventions every day.
‘There are three essential ingredients to starting a successful collection: Time, Inclination and Money – and I was lucky enough to have all three - but now I’m approaching 85, I believe it’s time to share these wonderful objects with others.’ Dr John C Taylor OBE
The John C Taylor Collection - Part II selling exhibition represents the climax to a quite remarkable year for us at Carter Marsh & Co, despite COVID challenges affecting our customers worldwide, the summer of 2021 was exceptionally busy and successful, which is entirely thanks to your continuing passion and interest – thank you!
The John C Taylor Collection - Part II
 We have produced a 232 page full-colour printed catalogue of 48 exhibits, normally costing £35 but FREE to our subscribers on request from info@cartermarsh.com.
The Part II catalogue is also available online and contains items by particularly well-known makers East, Tompion and the Knibb brothers, but also there are many interesting and affordable items besides, by the likes of Sutton, Hilderson, Knottesford, Jones, Puller, Massey, Gould, Ellicott, Shelton and Brock – with prices ranging from £500 to £950,000.
‘What is particularly exciting about this section of the collection is that there are exhibits here of extraordinary rarity for every pocket - just as they were at the time - from Knibb’s humble Oxford ‘farthing’ trade token to one of the first pendulum clocks ever made.’
‘The John C Taylor Collection - Part II’ Selling Exhibition dates: - Sat 6th November to Sat 27th November 2021
at 32A The Square, Winchester SO23 9EX
Opening times: 10am to 5pm, every day except Sundays
Now for a quick taster of just a few of the delicious items that will be on offer…
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 At first apparently anomalous to this English collection, this supremely important and historically significant timepiece by Salomon Coster was made in The Hague and is dated 1658. Coster was given the ‘Privilege’ to make the first pendulum clocks by his fellow countryman and patentee, Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) - but the story doesn’t quite end there, because Coster employed London’s John Fromanteel to work with him from September 1657 to May 1658, under a now famous contract. The wording is in ‘Old Dutch’ and at best, imprecise, so there remains a very ‘healthy discussion’ between the Dutch and English as to his exact role. Perhaps unfairly, being English, it is clear to us that our man’s presence was hugely significant but, whatever the true circumstances, it is more than possible that this rare clock was actually made by John Fromanteel while he was in Coster’s workshop. It is one of only five surviving Coster early pendulum timepieces three of which are in museums: two in Holland and one in the Science Museum, London.
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 The Lennox Pluvier circa 1664 is a remarkably beautiful gold and enamel pre-balance spring calendar watch with a super-rare subsidiary seconds dial – possibly the first on an English watch. It was appropriately first owned by Frances Stuart, Duchess of Richmond and Lennox (1647- 1702), who was renowned as ‘La Belle Stuart’. Samuel Pepys had a famously‘roving eye’ and recorded her as ‘the greatest beauty I ever saw’, while Charles II was completely infatuated by her. The king spent four years between 1663 and 1667 trying to make her his mistress, but she consistently denied him, further inflaming his desires. As the Huguenot maker, Isack Pluvier, died in the Great Plague of 1665, it is possible that this was a love-token from the smitten king, the like of which he was celebrated for.
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 The known provenance of the majority of Tompion’s famous Grande Sonnerie clocks reads like a ‘who’s who’ of contemporary English and European sovereigns - but only three longcase clocks from the series survive. One remains in the Royal Collection, while this example, The Pearson Grande Sonnerie Tompion, is the last of the three and the most mechanically sophisticated. Sadly, we don’t know its original owner, but it was made soon after Queen Anne’s succession, when her husband, George of Denmark, finally had access to the funding that enabled him to become Tompion’s leading patron and clocks from this series were certainly on his ‘shopping list’. By the 19th Century it was in the unlikely ownership of a Victorian railway stationmaster, whose descendants sold it at auction in 1979. The case is also exceptional, with burr-walnut veneers and construction features that confirm that it too was specially commissioned to complement the complex Grande Sonnerie repeating movement.
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 Modest 17th Century wall clocks have long been considered the poor relations to their usually more glamorous table and longcase counterparts, they often indicate time with a single hour-hand and are described for use on the ‘back stairs’ by the household servants. However, the two Oxford examples by John Knibb go against the grain; the first is a superb and very rare striking lantern clock which not only has minute indication but also, most unusually, has an extra train with two additional bells that ‘ting-tang’ at every quarter.
The second is an apparently simple two-handed timepiece with an alarm, but actually it has a sophisticated plated movement housed in the most superb hooded walnut case with an original and exceptionally well-carved cresting, centred by a cherub’s head. Featuring in many of the most important horological publications of the last 50 years, it was first illustrated in RA Lee’s definitive book, The Knibb Family, Clockmakers, in 1964. Both examples are archetypal of the best work emanating from the Knibb brothers in the 1670s and 1680s.
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 There is no shortage of glamour in Dr Taylor’s collection, but surely one of the most sensational is the Henry Masseytable clock of c.1695 - veneered in stunning scarlet-backed turtleshell it is befittingly mounted in solid silver. Apart from being dressed in this astonishing finery, it also contains an appropriately complex movement attributed to Daniel Quare. Striking the hours, it pull-repeats the quarters on a peal of 6 bells but, critically, it also has a massive and sensationally engraved secondary ‘keyhole’ backplate, for which Quare was renowned, that pleasingly takes up the whole of the rear of the case. It doesn’t stop there – the gilt dial has gorgeous silver repoussé spandrels, with a very rare seconds display to the centre, below the rise and fall regulation dial.
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 Meanwhile, one of the most mechanically astonishing table clocks from this part of Dr Taylor’s collection is the miniature Jonathan Puller of c.1693. Utilising Knibb’s renowned style of Phase III case with Tompion’s style of twin repeat levers, we are immediately aware this clock is something special. Miniature 17th-century table clocks are exceedingly scarce anyway, but when combined with an 8-day, split-plate, full Grande Sonnerie striking and repeating movement, they are unknown to any other maker at this time. When compared to its diminutive dial, this complicated fully latched movement is massive, and to fit it into a case proportional to the dial, it required Puller to use every single bit of available space inside, so that when viewing this extraordinary table clock one is completely deceived by its simple and elegant outward appearance - all in miniature.
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 The rare marquetry longcase by William Prevost is also remarkable, not only is it the earliest recorded provincial year-going clock, but it is hour striking too – this is above and beyond most London examples of the period, which are generally timepieces, and so this example additionally requires the bell to be struck a minimum of 56,940 times during its duration. This clock is believed to have resulted from a competition in 1698 between the two most accomplished makers in Newcastle, Prevost and Deodatus Threlkeld. Tradition has it, that the two had a contretemps in a local tavern as to who was the better clockmaker, a wager ensued, and each agreed they would build a clock and return one year later. The two makers initially approached the Clockmakers’ Company to adjudicate but their records show they declined to take part, however Samuel Watson and Edward Burgis agreed to judge in their stead. On the appointed day, the judges surprisingly chose Threkeld’s clock over this one. Sadly that clock does not appear to have survived but to win over this example, it must have been extraordinary indeed. The story didn’t quite end there, with accusations of cheating - because, suspiciously soon after the wager, William Threlkeld (Deodatus’s son or nephew) became engaged to 'judge' Samuel Watson’s daughter.
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We look forward to welcoming you in Winchester to show you these and many more extraordinary horological gems from The John C Taylor Collection – Part II, in the meantime should you like a copy of the catalogue, or to discuss any of the exhibits, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Jonathan & Darrell
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Darrell Dipper
darrell@cartermarsh.com
+44 (0)7976 301886 |
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