John Carte (fl. 1695-1706) was an obscure but accomplished London-based clockmaker who worked at the end of the 17th century to the beginning of the 18th. There are records of 8 pieces from his oeuvre, however very few survive to modern times. Contemporary commentary compared his clocks to those of Quare and Thompion (the latter of whom is buried at Westminster). The Czar of Russian and the Landgraf of Hesse (the patron of Jost Buergi) were both customers of Carte.
Today, Carte’s main claims to fame are his ‘cosmographical clocks’, which he published as broadsheets from 1695 until approximately 1706. They featured a 2-by-12 hour dial with a concentric annual dials with numerous astronomical indications.
With an Early Depiction of Global Time Zones Superb separately-issued engraved broadside with Hermes at the center and a series of concentric rings emanating outward, allowing the calculation things as diverse as astronomical phenomena, phases of the...
