Probably an emigré from France or the Low Countries who worked in London from c.1615, he was involved in the very beginnings of the Clockmaker’s Company in 1631, took on many apprentices who became makers in their own right, and continued to trade into the pendulum era, flirting himself with the new technology.
According to the inscriptions to many of Closon’s surviving clocks his workshop was sited ‘near Holborn Bridge’.
This mid-17th century brass lantern clock offered by Franklin Browns (18% buyer’s premium) in Edinburgh on March 13 is inscribed to the foliate dial Peter Closon, Holborn Bridge Fecit. It has a weight-driven movement with two independent wheel trains and has been later converted to pendulum use. Estimated at £400-600, it sold at £6500.
