Page 16 - Demo

MOVEMENT
The movement has typically early long shouldered plates joined by six slender ringed baluster pillars, all of which are latched at the front plate. The going train has a reconverted verge escapement with short bob pendulum and bolt-and-shutter maintaining power.
The strike train retains almost complete originality, the hammer is mounted vertically on the backplate in the early manner pivoted at the top on a shaped brass cock with the hammer striking on the outside of the original bell which is mounted above the plates; the strike is regulated by the original countwheel which is secured to the backplate towards the upper right quadrant. The oak seatboard supports two rectangular movement blocks with four brass ‘staples’ on which to rest the plates, the gut lines are secured to the seatboard by two iron hooks located at the front right foot of each block. The hood spoon locking system operates in the underside of the seatboard.
NOTES
There appear to be only three known two-train longcase clocks left in this world by Joseph Knibb from his very early days in Oxford; the present clock, the walnut longcase and the ebonised longcase in the collection of Dr. John Taylor.
This clock is easily the smallest of the three, standing just 5 feet 11 inches high so by definition it is technically a miniature longcase clock. It was acquired in the early 20th century by Arthur Wetherfield, but is not illustrated in his famous limited edition book, Old English Clocks The Wetherfield Collection, which was published in 1907, presumably because he acquired it after the book was published – perhaps it was a case of the longer the collector collects the more refined his taste becomes.
When Wetherfield died in 1930 half the collection, including this clock, was acquired by Arthur Vernay, a dealer of English and American furniture and clocks based in East 54th Street, New York. Vernay produced a catalogue (this example being No. 32) and he advertised the collection in Country Life and used this Knibb longcase as his ‘flagship’ example in the advert.
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