Saturday 9 April 2016

Saturday.


Been a very busy week. The two photographs are of a small clock  (six inch square dial) that I've purchased, restored, and resold (to a dealer) all in about the last  fortnight.  It's originally a loop and spurs wall clock, which has been later mounted on a small oak bracket. It was made somewhere around 1690 - 1720, by Roger Moore, of Ipswich, who was the founder of a distinguished family of East Anglian clockmakers. The best known of them was Thomas Moore, also of Ipswich, who was this chap's son.


This photograph shows the name Roger Moore, Ipswich, engraved along the bottom of the clock's brass  dial.  It was rather a temptation to keep this clock, but there - you can't keep them all, or the place begins to look like a cross between a junk shop and a museum.

I really started to type this blog entry to warn my readers that I am once again having problems with the computer. It keeps telling me how many messages it has taken in on my behalf, then refusing to give them up to me.  I think the number it's withholding at the moment is something like sixty three, but it keeps varying, so if you've written to me and not got a reply or an acknowledgement, it simply means that the computer has retained it and is growling at me whenever I attempt to make it give them up. I shall have to get an expert in to beat the machine up and persuade it to behave.

In the meantime, please bear with  me.


P.s. I should perhaps have said that Roger Moore was born somewhere around 1660, and died in 1727.

4 comments:

Crowbard said...

Very satisfying piece Mike, I think the later introduction of the minute hand was a completely unnecessary fad, adding nothing to the utility or accuracy of the device but frequently leading to a spurious sense of precision.

Unknown said...

Perhaps we should explain, Crowbard, that if there are five divisions between the hour markings on the chapter ring of a clock dial, it means that the clock would have had two hands. If there are only four divisions between the hour markings it means that the clock started life as a single handed clock, as the four divisions indicate that these are quarter hour divisions as opposed to minute divisions.

Crowbard said...

Understood Mike, I was just saying I prefer the single handed clock and rue the later introduction of the minute hand. I have no argument against minute hands per se, some of them are very beautifully crafted, but on a clock they are frivolous.

Unknown said...

Regarding the problem on my computer, regarding its reluctance to pass on any messages, seems to have cleared itself. It has returned to its duty and is now passing on messages again.