John Mayhew Rendham longcase clock
Product Description
Early 18th century John Mayhew Rendham longcase clock SOLD
John Mayhew is listed by Brian Loomes’s Watchmakers and Clockmakers of the world as working in Rendham and Saxmundham (Suffolk) in the early 18th century.
THIS CLOCK IS NOW SOLD
The Rendham parish website is a little more informative and it appears that the Mayhew family was active in clockmaking in East Anglia. John Mayhew is known to have made more refined clocks that the usual rural clocks and this fine example bears all the hallmarks of a thorough apprenticeship to a good master.
This John Mayhew Rendham loncase clock with its five-pillar movement is made in the best tradition of London clocks of the early eighteenth century. Likewise the wheel-work, collets and other dating detail in the movement are all early 1700s. This is an eight-day clock and it is not known whether John Mayhew made 30-hour clocks since he seems to have made clocks for more up-market customers.
The hour is struck on a bell using the rack system for counting off the number of the hour.
The female mask cast brass spandrels are of a style popular between 1715 and 1745: The silvered attached chapter ring is marked with vestigial quarter hours on the inner rim: The hands are blued high carbon steel of a style correct for the 1720s -1730s date of the clock. The oak case (just over 2 metres high) is somewhat puritanical embellished only by the addition of brass details to the hood.
The clock and case have been carefully restored to a high standard. The movement has been overhauled and oiled, new cat-gut lines fitted, and generally put in good order. A similar John Mayhew Rendham longcase clock was sold by Bonhams, auctioneers in 2004 for £7,400.
This John Mayhew Rendham longcase clock is offered for sale as an object of horological heritage: It is capable of keeping time to within less than one minute per month.
