An interesting Charles II ebonised miniature striking bracket clock, the case with glazed sides and later brass frets, the restored dome top with foliate gilt metal carrying handle, the 10cm X 11.5cm dial signed Henry Massy London within a foliate reserve above the silvered chapter ring with sword-hilt half hour markers, matted centre with later hands, winged cherub spandrels, the twin fusee (chain lines) movement with four vase-shaped pillars and two later cylindrical pillars, now with anchor escapement, lacking pull repeat work, plain backplate, the false-plate signed Hen. Massy London within profuse foliate engraving with later backcock and pendulum holdfast, alterations and restoration

Details

An interesting Charles II ebonised miniature striking bracket clock, the case with glazed sides and later brass frets, the restored dome top with foliate gilt metal carrying handle, the 10cm X 11.5cm dial signed Henry Massy London within a foliate reserve above the silvered chapter ring with sword-hilt half hour markers, matted centre with later hands, winged cherub spandrels, the twin fusee (chain lines) movement with four vase-shaped pillars and two later cylindrical pillars, now with anchor escapement, lacking pull repeat work, plain backplate, the false-plate signed Hen. Massy London within profuse foliate engraving with later backcock and pendulum holdfast, alterations and restoration
9½in. (24.1cm.) high

Lot Essay

Henry Massy (or Massey) is recorded as a brother of the Clockmakers' Company in 1692, the son of Nicholas I, a French Protestant watchmaker who worked in Cranborn street and who died in 1698. No further records of Henry exist after 1704
False backplates are particularly uncommon presumably because they involved extra expense. One of the more obvious reasons for its use here is the small surface area available for engraving with most of it that is taken up with pivots holes; the false-plate allowed the engraver much more freedom. Whether the pendulum swung between the two plates is difficult to assess but would certainly have been more pleasing.

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