A Victorian ormolu-mounted ebonised quarter chiming travelling clock with calendar and alarm

FRENCH, ROYAL EXCHANCE, LONDON

Details

A Victorian ormolu-mounted ebonised quarter chiming travelling clock with calendar and alarm
French, Royal Exchance, London
The case on large foliate cast scrolling feet and with similar mounts applied to the concave moulding above with gadrooned carving, rope-twist mounts flanking the dial, foliate mounts to the arched top surmounted by an elaborately cast handle of two confronting dolphins' heads, bevelled glasses to the sides, the left side with a loud/soft lever for the gong, the rear door set with a foliate cast sound fret, the gilt dial finely engraved with scrolling foliage and signed French Royal Exchange London beneath the Roman chapter ring with blued steel fleur de lys hands and gilt alarm hand, subsidiary flanking dials above for Chime & strike silent and Bells loud/Bells soft, the lower flanking dials for the day of week and date, the highly accomplished and compact movement with triple chain fusees chiming on eight bells with hour strike on a gong (both the bells and the gong with a loud and soft strike facility), the escapement platform having lever escapement with a blued steel overcoiled spring to a cut bimetallic balance, the alarm assembly fixed to the backplate striking to its own bell slung below, the backplate signed French Royal Exchange London
13in. (33cm.) high

Provenance

Sold Christie's, London, 30 June 1993, lot 249, the Property of The Richard Ormonde Shuttleworth Charitable Trust, sold by order of the Trustees and removed from Old Warden Park.

Lot Essay

Santiago James Moore French is recorded making clocks between 1810-40, principally at Royal Exchange. Very little has been researched into this clockmaker consequently little is known about him except that his work was of consistantly high quality.
The present clock would have been one of the most complicated pieces ever made by French and must have been a special commission. For the buyer to stipilate an alarm and also have the loud-and-soft strike facility for the chime and the gong indicates that the client must have had a very deep pocket and also that he meant to use it as a practical travelling clock.

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