Lot 76
76
A George III ebonised and gilt-brass mounted world time table clock
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus bu… Read more VARIOUS PROPERTIES
A George III ebonised and gilt-brass mounted world time table clock

CIRCA 1780

Details
A George III ebonised and gilt-brass mounted world time table clock
Circa 1780
The case with brass-lined pad to the break arch top and pineapple finials to the angles, with brass handles to the sides above glazed rectangular panels, gilt-metal caryatid mounts to the front and rear angles, the moulded base raised on brass bracket feet, with brass-lined front door to the 8¼in. wide shallow-arched brass dial, floral spandrels to the white enamel twice XII chapter disc, also marked for Arabic minutes at intervals of five and at the quarter positions NOON/EVENING/NIGHT/MORNING, with pierced and engraved gilt brass hands, the three conjoined hour hands dividing respectively to indicate the time in LONDON/VIENNA/JERUSALEM/PETERSBURG, BENGAL/PEKIN and PANAMA/BOSTON, the London hand embellished with a painted rose, the Vienna hand cut as a flaming torch, the Petersburg/Jerusalem hand as a spear and pike and the Peking hand as a dragon, the florally engraved arch above with subsidiary white enamel discs for strike/silent and regulation, the twin fusee (chain lines) five pillar movement with verge escapement, strike and trip repeat on bell, the back plate elaborately engraved with floral scrolls, with conforming engraved decoration to the latched pendulum holdfast and to the movement securing brackets
See Back Cover for detail of dial
15¼in. (38.5cm.) high
Special notice
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

There would have been a limited market for 'world time' clocks in the late 18th Century as in pre-telegraph days there was no commercial need to know the time in a foreign city. Consequently a world time clock from this period is particularly rare.
A clock such as this would probably have appealed to a merchant or traveller with overseas interests or perhaps to an official in one of the flourishing trading businesses, such as the East India Company. A dial of closely related design by James Tregent is illustrated in Richard C R Barder, The Georgian Bracket Clock, Antique Collectors' Club, 1993, p.98, pl.IV/18.

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