A fine Charles III olivewood and parquetry inlaid oyster eight-day longcase clock with ten inch dial William Clement, London, circa 1680 The five finned and latched pillar bell-striking movement with plates measuring 6.5 by 5 inches and anchor escapement regulated by seconds pendulum, the strike train with external countwheel for sounding the hour on a bell mounted above the plates, the 10 inch square brass dial with finely matted centre within applied silvered Roman numeral chapter ring with stylised two-tier trident half hour markers and Arabic fine minutes within the outer minute track, with sculpted pierced steel hands, gilt winged cherub head cast spandrels to angles and engraved signature William Clement Londini Fecit to lower margin, the case with rising hood fitted with a cherub-mask centred floral carved ebonised swan-neck crest over ogee cornice and foliate scroll pieced frieze fret to the entablature, above fixed glazed dial aperture flanked by ebonised Solomonic columns, the sides with rectangular glazed windows and conforming quarter columns set against bargeboards at the rear, the trunk with convex throat over 40 inch rectangular door inlaid with an oval starburst parquetry panel incorporating inter-looped subsidiaries above the oval lenticle and a matching slightly lobed panel beneath, set into an oyster olivewood ground with conforming quadrant decoration at the angles, line borders and ebonised D-moulded surround, the sides veneered with single panels of further olivewood oysters within crossbanded borders, the plinth base with stepped ogee part-ebonised top moulding over conforming oval and quadrant panel parquetry decoration and standing on ebonised bun feet, 199cm (78.5ins) high. William Clement is recorded in Loomes, Brian Clockmakers of Britain 1286-1700 as born before 1622, possibly 1621 in St. Albans. He was made a Freeman in the Blacksmiths Company in 1654 and rose to the Livery in 1664. From around 1665 Clement lived in the Parish of St. Saviours, Southwark, possibly to escape the plague from which his two sons William and Francis may have died. In 1659 a William Clement was commissioned as Lt Colonel in the White Regiment of Foot of the Parliamentarian Army. Clement was still alive in 1675 however records from this time onwards become confused with that of his son of the same name. In 1671 William Clement supplied a turret clock for Kings College, Cambridge, this clock was traditionally considered to be the earliest surviving timepiece to be regulated by anchor escapement and long pendulum supporting the possibility that Clement was the inventor. This view was further perhaps fortified by an entry in Smith, John Horological Disquisitions (1694) which states 'Mr William Clement, had at last the good fortune to give it the finishing stroke, he being indeed the real contriver of that curious kind of long pendulum, which is at this day so universally in use among us'. From this it would be fair to interpret Smith as not crediting Clement with the actual invention of the long pendulum, but perhaps is instead indicating that he devised the arrangement subsequently universally adopted which must be the recoil anchor. Two years later William Derham in The-Artificial Clock-Maker puts the case forward for Dr. Robert Hooke, who it is said demonstrated the long pendulum to the Royal Society soon after the Fire of London, however it is not clear whether this was with a form of recoil anchor escapement (although it is generally accepted that Hooke devised the spring pendulum suspension). Another contender for its invention is Joseph Knibb who, in early 1670, supplied a turret clock for Wadham College, Oxford, complete with anchor recoil escapement and long pendulum. But again there is no documentary evidence to support a view that Knibb actually devised this form of regulation. In 1677 William Clement was made a Free Brother of the Clockmakers Company and the following year was appointed Assistant by unanimous consent and approbation and for good reasons and especial esteem. He later served as Warden in 1690 and Master in 1694. In 1697 Clement signed the Oath of Allegiance and was from September of that year excused from attending meetings on account of his age. From April 1704 he received charity payments from the Company until his death in July 1709. The case of the current lot is fine example of a rare type which appear to have only been made in fairly small numbers for the relatively short time span of circa 1680-85. Two comparable cases housing movements and dials by Joseph Knibb are illustrated in Dawson, Percy G.; Drover C.B. and Parkes D.W. Early English Clocks on page 254 (Plate 340) and Lee, Ronald A. The Knibb Family * Clockmakers on page 32 (Plate 23); another this time for a movement and dial by Joseph Windmills, is pictured in Bruton, Eric The Wetherfield Collection of Clocks on page 134 (number 83); and finally a fourth by Tompion can be found in Dawson, Percy G. THE IDEN CLOCK COLLECTION on page 70. The dial of the present clock notable in that there is no subsidiary seconds to the centre, this very much follows the practice of Joseph Knibb, who from about 1680, appeared to more often than not dispense with the provision of a subsidiary seconds dial. From this it would seem that with the current clock Clement was keeping abreast of fashion by supplying an example which emulated that of his prolific rival.