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A Charles II ebony and gilt-brass mounted striking table clock with pull quarter repeat and alarm

EDWARD BURGIS, LONDINI. CIRCA 1680

Details

A Charles II ebony and gilt-brass mounted striking table clock with pull quarter repeat and alarm
Edward Burgis, Londini. Circa 1680
The case with gilt-brass ringed handle to the moulded cushion top foliate repoussé mounts to front, rear and sides, gilt-brass urn finials to the corners, elaborate gilt-brass foliate escutcheons to the front door, rectangular glazed panels to sides and to the rear door, the front door with later ebony fret to the top rail, on spreading moulded base and raised on block feet, the 7in. square dial with winged cherub mask spandrels to a silvered Roman and Arabic chapter ring with trident fleur-de-lys half hour markers, matted centre with silvered calibrated alarm disc, with two strike/no strike levers above 60 for strike and alarm, later blued steel hands, with latches to the dial feet and to the seven slender ringed movement pillars, with twin wire fusees for the going and strike trains and going barrel for the alarm, reconverted knife-edge verge escapement, pull trip repeat on two bells, with hour strike on a further larger bell, the alarm assembly mounted within the plates and striking on the hour bell via a double-headed hammer, the backplate engraved with stylised tulips and leafy scrolls and signed Edwardus Burgis Londini Fecit, movement secured to the case by turn screws to the reverse of the dial and by a small brass post (also with two later securing brackets on the seatboard); all mounts and dial regilt
12½in. (32cm.) high to hilt of handle

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

Brian Loomes writes of Edward Burgis; 'Nothing much known about him and he was not a member of CC [Clockmakers' Company]. In Apr 1670 he married at St Saviour's Southwark to Patience Clement...he and his wife were both still alive in 1713.' (The Early Clockmakers of Great Britain, NAG Press, 1981, p.127).
A table clock of closely related design by Burgis may be seen in Dawson, Drover, Parkes Early English Clocks, Antique Collectors' Club, 1982, p.452, plate 662 and is illustrated disassembled pp.392-395, plates 557-563; the position of the alarm train in pl. 558 is clearly demonstrated. The inclusion of alarm-work is relatively unusual on a table clock of this period and the manner in which Burgis sets the alarm crown wheel 'into' the top right corner of the front plate is particularly ingenious.

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