A GEORGE I GILT-BRASS MOUNTED EBONY STRIKING SMALL BRACKET CLOCK

DANIEL QUARE THOMAS TOMPION. NO. 62, CIRCA 1710

Details

A GEORGE I GILT-BRASS MOUNTED EBONY STRIKING SMALL BRACKET CLOCK
daniel quare thomas tompion. no. 62, circa 1710
The arched gilt brass dial with silvered Roman and Arabic chapter ring with pierced blued steel hands, the finely matted centre with mock pendulum aperture and octagonal signature reserve Dan: Quare London, Indian mask-and-foliate lower spandrels, large silvered calendar ring in the arch with matted centre and pierced blued steel hands within inhabited foliate engraving and flanked by subsidiary silvered rings for pendulum regulation and strike/silent, the dial numbered 62 below the chapter ring, the miniaturised seven pillar twin gut fusee movement with verge escapement, pull quarter repeat on two bells on Tompion's system via double-cocked blued steel interconnecting levers with pull cords on either side, the backplate profusely engraved with scrolling foliage inhabited with birds and serpents, signed Dan Quare, London within a leaf-engraved oval, the case with massive gilt-brass baluster handle to the cushion-moulded top, pierced ebony soundfrets to the gilt-brass-lined glazed side windows, similarly lined front door with Indian mask-and-foliate spandrels, the moulded base on gilt brass block feet
11½in. (29.5CM.) high

Provenance

Anonymous sale in these rooms, June 25, 1970, lot 21, 5,250 gns
R.A. Lee, Antiquarian Horology, 1970, p. 16

Literature

A. Asprey & M. Neolson, Exhibition of fine Antique and Decorative clocks, 10-20 June, 1975, No. 7
Guy Boney, The Tompion-Quare collaboration, Antiquarian Horology, September 1982, pp. 462-468
Britten, Old Clocks and watches and their makers, 2nd. ed., p. 294, fig. 431

Lot Essay

Daniel Quare 1647-1724 was one of the greatest clock makers of his day. A Quaker by religion he is recorded as resisting various minor laws such as refusing to pay a rate for the maintenance of the Clergy and for refusing to pay charges for the militia. Despite these minor indiscretions a picture emerges of a man full of character and with a very successful business mind. His success is often compared to the quality of the guests at his daughter's wedding who included such dignitaries as the Envoys from Florence, Hanover and Prussia, the Earl of Orrery, the Duke of Argyll and Duchess of Marlborough, not to mention the Prince of Wales.
His workshops were amongst the most prolific in London at the time and it is quite possible that when over-stretched he had to call on other clockmakers and buy in their work. The present clock is one of five examples where Quare had used movements from Tompion's workshops; one, numbered 44, is similar to the present example, another in a silver-mounted tortoiseshell case, another similar one to this now in the V & A and another un-numbered ebonised example now in the British Museum

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