A WILLIAM III STRIKING TABLE CLOCK

Details

EDWARD BURGIS, LONDON, CIRCA 1695
A WILLIAM III STRIKING TABLE CLOCK
CASE: the domed top with baluster loop handle and pierced foliate mounts, vase finials to the angles, conforming mounts to door and side sound frets, winged mask escutcheon and false escutcheon, glazed sides and rear door, raised on disc feet
DIAL: the 7 inch square dial with latched dial feet, the silvered chapter ring with Roman hours and Arabic five minutes with fleur-de-lis half-hour markers, blued steel hands, the matted centre with alarm setting disc, cherub head spandrels and levers above 'XII', 'N' / 'N', for no strike and no alarm
MOVEMENT: the eight-day two-train gut fusee movement with plates joined by seven latched ringed pillars, rack striking and quarter repeat on two bells, alarm strike to hour bell, bob pendulum and hold-fast, the backplate engraved with flowerheads and foliage centred with a bird, signed to lower cartouche 'Edwardus Burgis / Londini fecit'
Ebonised wood and gilt-brass
13 1⁄2 in. (34.3 cm.) high (handle down); 10 in. (25.4 cm.) wide; 6 1⁄8 in. (15.5 cm.) deep

Provenance

Acquired from R.A. Lee, London, January 1966.

Literature

P.G. Dawson, C.B. Drover, D.W. Parkes, Early English Clocks, Woodbridge, 1982, pp. 392-7, pls. 557-63, 662.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Amelia Walker Director, Specialist Head of Private & Iconic Collections

awalker@christies.com +44 20 7389 2085

Lot Essay

Sir Nicholas Goodison noted: Clocks of this type were also sold by Richard Colston (Dawson, Drover and Parkes, Early English Clocks, pl. 564) and Fromanteel (pl. 566), as well as William Herbert. They have virtually identical repeating mechanisms taken from the hour-striking train and pulled off by a bar working through a slot in the base of the case and a separate alarm train. It is highly likely that they originate in the same workshop.

More from The Collection of Sir Nicholas Goodison - British Art: Innovation and Craftsmanship

View All