A fine 8 day walnut antique longcase / grandfather clock with brass dial by one of  Colchester's most accomplished  clockmakers

The case is small and elegant and typlical of the area and period - also under 7 ft. tall it will fit where size may be an issue.  The door of the trunk is veneered with beautifully figured, quarter book-matched panels and has developed a wonderful colour.

The eight day movement is of high quality with early balluster pillars supporting the brass plates

The arch dial has a matted centre with a silvered chapter ring and gilded corner spandrels,  and the dial centre has a date aperture.  To the arch is a boldly engraved silvered boss signed  Robt Hewes Colchester surrounded a wheatear edge and centred by dolphin spandrels

Robert Hewes was born in 1711 the son of a Colchester corn chandler also Robert.  He married Mary Dearsley on 24 March 1732 and they had two sons.  In 1735 he was admitted and sworn a free burgess of the Borough by right of birth.  He established his business next door to the old White Hart Inn on the High Street.  Several pages of biography can be found in:

 Bibl:  "Clock and Watchmaking in Colchester" by Bernard Mason

(a history of provincial clockmaking from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries in the oldest recorded towm in Great Britain)