Tennant, Frances

• Tennant, Mary Frances

Mary Frances Tennant (1927–2018), née Goddard, was a New-York-born painted dial restorer and conservator, and the author of two books on the subject: Longcase Painted Dials: Their History and Restoration (1995) and The Art of the Painted Clock Dial (2009).

Frances specialised in art and dance during her time at the Brearley School in Manhattan, and emigrated to England after her marriage in 1949 to David Alan Tennant, a British Navy officer. They eventually settled at The Stone House in Rossett, Wales, where they set up their studios after David retrained as a horologist, and Frances began applying her artistic skills to the painting of enamels and the restoration of painted clock dials. Using innovative restoration techniques, she always started the restoration process with a record of photographs when the dial was received, and concluded with images of the completely restored dial. Frances contributed to an exhibition on dials held at Prescot Museum and lectured widely on these subjects.

View collection: TEN - TENNANT, FRANCES

For an obituary of Frances Tennant by John Griffiths, see Antiquarian Horology vol. 40 no. 1 (March 2019), p. 33.

Image courtesy of Graham Tennant.