'TIM BOBBIN'S' CLOCK. AN OAK AND QUARTER SAWN OAK THIRTY HOUR LONGCASE CLOCK

'TIM BOBBIN'S' CLOCK. AN OAK AND QUARTER SAWN OAK THIRTY HOUR LONGCASE CLOCK, GEO BOOTH, MANCHESTER, EARLY 18TH C the 28cm brass dial with matted centre, cherub and crown spandrels and single pierced hand, the trunk door with bull's eye lentical, 228cm hProvenance: (according to an old handwritten label) "This clock was the property of John Collier of Milnrow who died 1786 and buried in the Rochdale Parish Churchyard, he was a Lancashire poet and schoolmaster 75 years from Bolton. This is his poetry Here Lies John and with him Mary/Cheek by jowl and never very/No wonder that they so well agree/John wants no punch nor Mol no tea"The unknown early 19th c author of the note pasted to the back of this handsome provincial 19th c clock rightly considered it worthy as a relic of John Collier (1708-1786) better known as 'Tim Bobbin', the Lancashire painter of caricatures and dialect verifier. He became nationally known and as his book of engravings 'Human Passions Delineated' (1773) went through many editions. He gave his peculiar talent free rein with all the Seven Deadly Sins. The twisted expressions of his well-to-do or lowly men and women were often so distorted that they appear grotesque freaks, not of nature but of their particular fit of passion. The evident want of even rudimentary technique only serves to heighten the effect. Collier/Bobbin was born at Urmston and lived at Milnrow, near Rochdale. Judging by his art, verse and many sardonic epitaphs neither his pen nor his pencil lacked subjects of themes in the locality. He apparently penned his own epitaph a few minutes before his death.