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Willem Sneewins ( - 1710)


Field(s) of interest: Scientific instruments
Gender: male


Died: Delft, 29-04-1710

Biography:
Willem Sneewins (d. 1710) was a scientific instrument and watch maker, living on the Buitenwatersloot in Delft. Anthony Sneewins was his father. He married op 9-01-1672 in Delft Mariijtge Pijetersdr van Cleeff from ’t Wout (d. 1690). At that occasion he called himself ‘instrumenmaker’. Tthe couple had seven children. Willem remarried in Delft on 23-06-1691 Dirckge van den Ham (d. 1737), widow of Johannes van Schrage. At that occasion he called himself ‘horlogemaker’. In the next years three more children were born.

Collections: Museum Boerhaave, Leiden (sundail and a graphometer); Scheepvaartmuseum, Amsterdam (astrolabe, tide indicator; ‘quadrant generaal’ [1697] and a sundail [1700]); Museum History of Science, Oxford (Astronomical Compendium, 1709).


Occupations:
scientific instrument and watch maker: ~1672 - 1710 (Delft)

Sources:
Rooseboom, M. Bijdrage tot de geschiedenis der instrumentmakerskunst in de noordelijke Nederlanden. (Leiden 1950).

Ottema, N. Geschiedenis van de uurwerkmakerskunst in Friesland. (Assen/Leeuwarden 1948).

Morpurgo, E. Nederlandse klokken- en horlogemakers vanaf 1300. (Amsterdam 1970).

Zinner, E. Deutsche und Niederländische astronomische Instrumente des 11.-18. Jahrhunderts. (München 1956).

Crone, E. ' Een zonne- en getijdenwijzer in zakformaat', in: Jaarverslag Vereeniging Nederlandsch Historisch Scheepvaart Museum (1965-1967).

Gunther, R.T. Early science in Oxford vol. 2 (Oxford 1923).