The Spaans Coster, Dated 1658 A highly important early pendulum Dutch wall box timepiece with alarm

#Antique
"The Spaans Coster
Dated 1658
A highly important and historically significant early pendulum Dutch ebony wall box timepiece with alarm by Salomon Coster, The Hague

Height
12¾ inches (325 mm)

Case
The rectangular box case, veneered in ebony with an ebonised convex-bolection moulded and mitred frame to the front door, right-hand opening on two five-knuckle brass hinges concealed behind the mitre-veneers inside the door, with similarly mitred mask veneers outside the dial-locating step, with an integral side-positioned lock operated by the winding key. The plain sides and top all veneered in ebony. The top with a screw-fixed stand for the alarm bell and exit hole for its hammer, and two rear-mounted integrally screw-fixed iron oval hanging loops. The interior veneered in rosewood (probably Dutch East Indian), the backboard with a clockmaker’s trade label for H.H.M. Middendorf, Groningen.

Dial
The 7 by 9¼ inches (178 by 235 mm) brass dial plate, the front covered in faded red velvet and right-hand opening on pin-hinges. The brass chapter ring with Roman hours and arrow half-hour marks, the outer Arabic minutes engraved within the division ring for every minute. The typical gilt-brass shaped hands with steel tips to the minute hand and to the alarm indication tail of the hour hand. The centre with a brass alarm disc with further Roman hours and arrow half-hours, above an engraved gilt-brass lambrequin, signed Salomon Coster, Haghe and scratch-engraved below met privilege 1658, pivoted over an access aperture for re-starting the pendulum. The rear of the dial supporting the movement on four pinned dial feet, and pasted with two clockmakers’ trade labels for: A. Koch, Haren (Groningen) and W.J. Olland, Groningen.

Duration
30 hour

Movement
The movement with tall rectangular plates joined by four square-section pillars, riveted to the frontplate and pinned to the backplate. The single spring barrel driving the four wheel going train with three spoke wheelwork, the pivoted verge escapement with a brass crutch, engaging the silk suspended short bob pendulum and cycloidal cheeks. The barrel ratchet wheel is mounted onto the backplate, with a steel click and brass spring. The under-dial with alarm release to the front plate, engaging the remote alarm movement positioned to the inside top right of the case, with conforming square section pillars, spring barrel and ratchet work, operating via a vertical verge to the outside, with a press-fit horizontal lever and hammer, sounding on the substantial bell mounted above the case.

Escapement
Early pivoted verge with silk-suspended short bob pendulum and cycloidal cheeks

Strike Type
Alarm only

Provenance
A ‘distinguished’ private family from Groningen, The Netherlands, until sold by Hervé Chayette, Drouot, Paris, 5th June 1985, lot 168;
Spaans Collection, Holland, and sold Christies Amsterdam, 19th December. 2007, lot 475 for €471,000;
John C Taylor Collection, inventory no.178

Exhibited
June 1986, Spring Driven Table Clocks of the Seventeenth Century, American Section of the A.H.S, Sotheby’s, New York;
September 2010, London, Swedenborg Society, Lecture on Ahasuerus Fromanteel by Rebecca Pohancenik;
2018, London, Innovation & Collaboration, exhibit no.24

Literature
Journal of the American Section of the Antiquarian Horological Society, Volume Two, 1986, ‘Horological Dialogues’, (illus.) p.24-25;
Antiquarian Horology, June 2007, Dr Reinier Plomp, ‘Prototypes of Hague Clocks and Pendules Religieuse’, (illus.) p.196-208;
Keith Piggott, A Royal Haagse Klok “Severijn Oosterwijck Haghe met privilege”, 2018, internet;
Garnier & Hollis, Innovation & Collaboration, 2018, (illus.) p.162-163;
Van den Ende, Hordijk, Kersing & Memel, The Invention of the Pendulum-Clock, 2019, internet

Comments
This extraordinary box clock would appear to have been made under the famous contract of September 1657, by John Fromanteel, for Salomon Coster in The Hague. Fromanteel arrived with some of his own materials and for these the contract specified payment of 20 Guilders for each, but this was reduced to 18½ Guilders if Coster supplied the materials. Fromanteel’s contract with Coster ended on May Day 1658.

What is undisputed, is that from all current and contemporary evidence, the five surviving Salomon Coster timepiece box clocks were all made in the Hague, Met Privelege, and that, of those, the three dated examples (two contemporaneously dated 1657, and the present example dated 1658) are currently considered to be the first pendulum clocks ever made for market."