Eardley Norton Organ Clock

This exceptionally rare longcase organ clock is without doubt—after our extensive inquiries—the only one of its kind for sale at present in the world.

Unique among antique organ clocks. The nine-foot-tall pine case, with superb walnut veneers, has extensive fretted sound apertures to hood and trunk, while the break arch hood, with carved centre cartouche, has an additional domed top. The bombay-style base is supported with a deep ebonised base. The eight-day-duration movement, before striking the hour on a bell, engages a fifty-four-pipe, weight-driven organ, playing on selection one of four tunes. The instrument, seated behind the clock movement, consists of two ranks of pipes, each of twenty-seven notes. The silvered brass arch dial, with finely engraved gilded centre, has strike/silent in arch, seconds ring, and date aperture. The organ clock maker's name and address are engraved around the arch:

Eardley Norton. St. Johns Street. London.

Recorded working from 1760 until 1794.

(See Accredited References, below.)

Dial | Organ Mechanism | Hood Detail | Arch Detail
Case Detail | Base Detail

Accredited References:

"Large organ clocks have a long history as princely gifts, most famously that associated with Thomas Dallam. The English eighteenth-century example in St. Petersburg illustrated on the cover of the January Reporter stands squarely in the same tradition, and there are other survivors. In the Salón de Embajadores of the Royal Palace at Aranjuez stands a large organ clock, the gift of the Sultan of Turkey to Carlos III, thought to have been made around 1785. Particular interest attaches to it from the fact that the clock part was made by the famous maker Eardley Norton (fl. 1770-1794), who was to become the father-in-law of Samuel Green in 1772. It has four stops: Stopt Diapason, Principal, Flute (metal) and Fifteenth. There is a barrel mechanism supplying thirteen dance tunes."—Paul Tindall, The British Institute of Organ Studies

"Eardley Norton was undoubtedly one of the most talented clockmakers of the second half of the 18th century. Undoubtedly the finest clock Eardley Norton produced, for which he was justly famous, is the Astronomical Clock with four dials he made for George III, now part of the Royal Collection, for which he was paid 1,042 pounds sterling, an enormous sum of money in those days."—Derek Roberts, British Longcase Clocks

"Eardley Norton (49 St. John St. Clerdenwell, London). A well-known maker of musical and astronomical clocks. A fine musical clock especially made for Empress Catherine (of Russia)."—extract from Old Clocks and Watches and Their Makers (the first horological book compiling exceptional makers, published in 1899).

"Eardley Norton, London (St. John St.), accepted into the clockmakers company in 1762. A maker of great repute of watches and complex clocks. Small Cartel clock, National Museum of Stockholm; Clock Cassel, Landes Museum (France); elaborate automator clock with organ, Palace Museum (Pekin); bracket clock, Virginia Museum (America); marine chronometer, Ilbert Collection, British Museum."—extract from Watchmakers and Clockmakers of the World, Vol. I by G. Hm. Baillie.

"Three watches made by him are part of the collection of 'The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers.' (The 'Guildhall Collection' housed in the city of London is the oldest collection in the world.)"—extract from Clocks and Watches in the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers, by Cecil Clutton and George Daniels.

"The best maker of his time, he made several clocks for George III and European Royal Houses."—extract from British Horological Journal, May 2001 issue.