|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Samuel Buxton was apprenticed in 1754 to James Smyth of Saxmundham for two years, fee £5. (He had possibly served 5 years' apprenticeship with another clockmaker, as the usual 'time' was 7 years from age 14.)
In 1761, he provided a two-train turret clock for St Mary's Church, Diss, at a cost of £73.10s. which still gives good reliable service, and made another for St Mary the Virgin at Banham, whose dial is dated 1768. Fine examples of his work are widely known: watches in gold and silver cases, eight-day longcase clocks and simple 30-hour birdcage movements in nicely finished country cases like this one, which has never strayed far from Diss, where it was made towards the end of Buxton's working life. The "C scrolls and flower spandrels"(1) indicate a date between 1760 and 1780, as do the hands(2) which are thought to be original.
(1) "The LONGCASE CLOCK Reference Book" Vol.II, by John Robey(2001) p.520
(2) Ibid. p.529
(3) "Norfolk & Norwich Clocks and Clockmakers," Clifford and Yvonne Bird (1996), p.106
|
|
|
|
