A George I ebonised, gilt-brass and ivory-mounted month-going astronomical longcase clock with equation of time and duplex escapement
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A George I ebonised, gilt-brass and ivory-mounted month-going astronomical longcase clock with equation of time and duplex escapement

DANIEL DELANDER, LONDON. CIRCA 1715

Details
A George I ebonised, gilt-brass and ivory-mounted month-going astronomical longcase clock with equation of time and duplex escapement
Daniel Delander, London. Circa 1715
The dial with silvered Roman and Arabic chapter ring with half hour and half quarter hour markers, later blued steel hands, the matted gilt centre with subsidiary seconds ring beneath XII engraved every six seconds, the lunar ring above VI calibrated 1-29 and with inner concentric ring indicating equation of time, the matting overlaid with silver floral swags and engraved Tempus aequale, et inaequale: horologio hoc indicatur. Differentia est aequatio temporaria Flamstedy, the chapter ring enclosed by an ivory mask within a gilt-brass breakarch frame, the arch set with a revolving moon sphere enclosed by adjustable shutters, the concave lower section signed Delander LONDON above a cut-out sector displaying the annual calendar with a chamfered silver frame engraved with indications for;
Sun's Place - Sun's Rising and Setting - Sun's Amplitude - Sun's Rt Ascention - Sun's Declination - Days of the month, the dial secured to the movement with four latched feet, the movement with thick brass rectangular plates with six pinned pillars, reversed five wheel trains, inside rack strike on a bell above the plates, the equation cam mounted on the front plate, double wheel duplex escapement (inner 'scape wheel replaced), the movement secured to the oak seatboard with three latched brass brackets at the base of the movement plates, the re-ebonised case with heavy cavetto arched mouldings to the hood with substantial gilt-brass Corinthian columns on scroll pedestals and flanking the dial framed by a heavy gilt-brass moulded door frame, the rectangular trunk door with twin raised panels within a heavy gilt-brass moulding, the panelled plinth resting on elaborate gilt-brass scrolling feet.
7ft. 11in. (242cm.) high
Provenance
Sold Sotheby's, London, 5th October, 1989, lot 303
Special notice
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

Daniel Delander (d.1733) was apprenticed to Charles Halstead on 25 April, 1692 and was made Free of the Clockmakers' Company on 3 July, 1699. Very little is known about Delander's early life although his name is entered in the Register of Apprentices as Delaunder or De Lander giving perhaps some indication as to his background. After his Freedom in 1699 Delander was recorded by the Spectator as being "Servant" to Thomas Tompion (1639-1713). In 1714 he moved from Devereux Court to a house between the two Temple Gates in Fleet Street.
Quite what being Servant to Thomas Tompion meant may never be known but even without this tantalising reference to his formative years it is clear from this clock that Delander's work was heavily influenced by Tompion's workshops. The present clock combines all the qualities that one might expect from a movement by Tompion; the chamfered and tailed cocks on the front plate, the unsparing use of brass, the finish of the wheelwork and the positive and clinical lay-out of the motion and wheel work. The use of latches was hardly the preserve of the Tompion workshops but the bold curved examples used on this clock could only have been created through Tompion's influence.
Delander appears to have been somewhat of a maverick clockmaker, but a genius nonetheless. He did not make a series of profitable 'commercial' spring and longcase clocks as did Tompion or George Graham (1673-1751). From what may be learned from Delander's few surviving clocks he concentrated on making a very small number of exacting commissions to exceptional and individual standards. He also understood that an exceptional movement and dial is only exceptional if the case complements it perfectly. The present clock bears witness to this and also many of his other commissions such as the famous silver-mounted ebony barometer (Ex Samuel Messer Collection, Christie's, London, 5 December, 1991, lot 15) and the silver-mounted grande sonnerie bracket clock (ex Rous Lench collection, Christie's, London, 4 July, 1990, lot 106).

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