A Queen Anne ebony and gilt-metal mounted striking table clock

MARKWICK, LONDON. CIRCA 1705

Details

A Queen Anne ebony and gilt-metal mounted striking table clock
Markwick, London. Circa 1705
The case with gilt-metal addorsed caryatids handle to the double basket top cast with foliage, martial portrait reliefs and a figure of Britannia, the front door applied with further foliate cast repoussé mounts, the moulded base on later block feet, the 7in. square dial signed Markwick London on the silvered chapter ring with half and half quarter hour markers, pierced blued steel hands, the matted centre with decorated calendar aperture, ringed winding holes and mock pendulum aperture with later foliate engraved background, winged cherub spandrels, strike/silent lever above XII, the movement with brass plates secured by six ringed pillars, later anchor escapement, restored pull quarter repeat on six bells with hour strike on a further bell, the back plate profusely engraved with a cornucopiae and scrolling foliage
16½in. (42cm.) high

Lot Essay

Markwick, James. Two are recorded, father and son. James senior was apprenticed June 1656 and freed 1666. He seems to have had a temperamental disposition. In 1677 he was fined for abuse of the Master; in 1686 he refused to pay a fine and left the Clockmakers' Court in an angry manner. In 1682 he was an Assistant but from 1691 he attended very irregularly, for which he was cautioned. After January 1699/1700 he stopped attending. He may have worked until 1706. James junior was made a Freeman of the Company by patrimony in 1692. In 1716 he was an Assistant, in 1717 Warden and in 1720 he became Master.
A double basket top bracket clock by James Markwick is illustrated in Percy Dawson The Iden Clock Collection, Antique Collectors' Club, 1987, p.237.

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