Tho: Tompion Londini Fecit, No. 226: A William and Mary ebony miniature striking bracket clock; circa 1690/95

Details

Tho: Tompion Londini Fecit, No. 226: A William and Mary ebony miniature striking bracket clock; circa 1690/95
The plinth-form case with foliate cast giltmetal handle to domed top, foliate lock-plates to the door and pierced wood sound frets to the three sides, the dial signed Tho: Tompion Londini Fecit within a palm-leaf reserve flanked by subsidiary dials for regulation and strike/silent centered with rosette engraving, the silvered chapter ring enclosing the finely matted centre with false pendulum aperture, pierced blued hands, double-screwed female mask-and-foliate spandrels, latches to the dial feet and to the seven ringed pillars of the twin fusee (wire lines) movement with typical rise-and-fall regulation to the spring suspended pendulum with re-converted verge escapement, pull quarter repeat on Tompion's system from either side via interconnecting single-cocked blued steel levers, the backplate profusely engraved with scrolling foliage and fruiting swags, signed Thomas Tompion Londini Fecit within a wheatear and palm-leaf cartouche, numbered 226 at the base, the movement secured by screws through the base into bottom pillars and with foliate engraved brackets, with contemporary style oak carrying case
9½in. (24.2cm.) high

Provenance

The 7th. Earl of Essex (1857-1916), Cassiobury Park
By descent to his daughter The Lady Joan Peake, sold in these rooms 29 July 1951, lot 75, 1800 gns. to Oakes
Gilbert Edgar Esq., C.B.E. and thence by descent

Literature

English Clockmakers of the late XVII century - part I, Apollo, March, 1952, pp. 76-8, Figs I & II

Lot Essay

The rare miniature sized Tompion clock was made in small numbers at different stages of Tompion's oeuvre. It is interesting to speculate that at the time that this clock was made the 2nd. Earl of Essex was Gentleman to the Bedchamber to King William III. This was a position of considerable envy for it was his responsibility to oversee the Royal patronage to the Arts and would undoubtedly have been involved in purchasing clocks for the Royal Court either for private use or as gifts.

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