A Queen Anne walnut longcase clock

THOMAS TOMPION & EDWARD BANGER, LONDON NO.478. CIRCA 1705

Details

A Queen Anne walnut longcase clock
Thomas Tompion & Edward Banger, London No.478. Circa 1705
The case with plain moulded skirt supporting the restored plinth, the rectangular trunk door twice punch-numbered 478 and also 28, concave throat moulding beneath the hood with brass-capped columns beneath a double frieze with elaborately pierced walnut frets, the restored caddy top with three later ball finials, the 11in. square dial signed Tho Tompion & Edw Banger LONDON on an oval reserve in the finely matted centre with subsidiary seconds ring and calendar aperture with pin-hole adjustment, the silvered chapter ring with Roman and Arabic numberals and sword hilt half and half-quarter hour markers, well pierced blued steel hands, double-screwed Indian-mask-and-foliate spandrels with foliate border engraving, bolt-and-shutter lever at the right edge of the dial between chapters II and III, the reverse of the dial also punch-numbered 478, latches to the four dial feet and also to the five ringed pillars of the movement with thick brass rectangular plates, original(?) anchor escapement, hour strike on a large bell above the plates via a chamfered steel rack planted on the front plate, the back plate punch-numbered 478 at the base, brass L-bracket securing the movement to a brass T-bar secured to the backboard
8ft. (245cm.) high

Provenance

The collection of the late Sir John Prestige
Sold Sotheby's London, 28 October 1963, lot 140.

Lot Essay

Tompion, Thomas (1639-1713). Born in Ickfield Green, Bedfordshire Tompion was presumably brought up as a blacksmith like his father and grandfather. It is not known to whom he was apprenticed but by September 1671 he was in London and in 1674 he was made Free of the Clockmakers' Company by Redemption and set up premises at the Sign of the Dial and Three Crowns in Water Lane. Following its foundation in 1675 Tompion was commissioned to make two clocks for the Greenwich Observatory. Subsequently his business grew apace and by 1685 his household numbered 19 and he would have employed a number of non-resident journeymen also. In 1691 Tompion was elected Assistant to the Clockmakers' Company and subsequently he became Warden in 1700 and Master in 1703. His partnership with Edward Banger (apprenticed 1687, Free of the Clockmakers' Company 1695-1713) is thought to have started circa and ended abruptly circa 1708. The two are presumed to have fallen out and Banger disappeared into obscurity. By 1710 Tompion had taken another partner, his nephew by marriage and former apprentice, George Graham (1673-1751), who took over the business upon Tompion's death in 1713.

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