Benjamin Anns, Highworth an oak longcase clock: the thirty-h...

Benjamin Anns, Highworth an oak longcase clock: the thirty-hour duration bird-cage movement striking the hours on a bell with an outside countwheel, the eleven-inch square brass dial having a raised chapter ring engraved with black Roman numerals and triple-ball half-hour markings and signed Benj. Anns, Highworth, with a single blued-steel hand, the oak flat-top case having three-inset panels to the door with turned pillars to the hood having cast brass capitals, height 196cm. * Biography Benjamin Anns is recorded as working in Highworth, Wiltshire from at least 1748 when his first son Thomas was born. An oak cased brass dialled longcase clock signed for Anns is in the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum. Benjamin died in March 1807. His son James, born in April 1750, was an eminent master watch and clockmaker as stated on his marriage certificate of 1777. * Notes Reference John Young Wiltshire Watch and Clockmakers Vol.1 Sedgehill Publishing 2004