JOSHUA HARROCKS, LANCASTER. CIRCA 1765, WITH LATER EMBELLISHMENTS

细节

A George III carved mahogany longcase clock
Joshua Harrocks, Lancaster. Circa 1765, with later embellishments
The elaborate stepped hood with leaf and fluted mouldings around blind-fret panels, stop-fluted reeded columns and conforming rear pilasters, with moulded frame to the hood door and inner moulding in a bead and reel design with projecting leaves, the trunk with stylised leaf low relief carving to the throat moulding, above blind fret panels, also flanked by three-quarter length stop-fluted half columns, the arched trunk door with inner stiff leaf carved border and applied with a fluted shell moulding, above plain plinth with canted angles and raised on bracket feet, the 13 in. (33 cm.) wide cut-away brass dial with Roman and Arabic chapter ring with fleur-de-lys half hour markers, silvered centre with foliate scroll engraving, subsidiary seconds ring and date aperture, blued steel hands, signed on an arched plaque JOSHUA HARROCKS LANCASTER, the eight day movement with four pillars, anchor escapement and rack strike on bell; later seatboard, probably later plinth; two weights, pendulum, crank key
239 cm. high

注意事项

Christie's charge a premium to the buyer on the final bid price of each lot sold at the following rates: 23.8% of the final bid price of each lot sold up to and including €150,000 and 14.28% of any amount in excess of €150,000. Buyers' premium is calculated on the basis of each lot individually.

拍品专文

Prior to 1750 the number of clocks produced in Lancashire was relatively low. From that date, however, their numbers grew rapidly due to the area's increasing population and wealth, the latter significantly raised by the importance of Liverpool as a trading port. The region's increased wealth led to the rise of the distinctive Lancashire longcase clock, which first appeared circa 1760. These clocks have a particular style of their own and were frequently influenced by Chippendale designs and made by eminent cabinet-makers such as Messrs Gillow. See Derek Roberts, British Longcase Clocks, Schiffer, 1990, p.270.
Joshua Harrocks, Lancaster. Free of the Clockmakers' Company 1748. Made parish church clock in 1759. Still at Lancaster in 1764, the year his daughter Sarah was born. Later he moved to Eamont Bridge and clocks signed with this place exist from circa 1770. He is believed to have been still alive in 1783. See Brian Loomes, Lancashire Clocks and Clockmakers, David and Charles, 1975, p.99.
The case pillar of the present clock displays the nature-deity's shell badge in a beautiful triumphal arched tablet of flame-figured mahogany, while the antique-fluted columns sunk in its cut corners are enriched with reeds. Its plinth's mahogany tablet is likewise indented with hollowed corners. The case relates to George II 'Roman' patterns executed by the Lancaster firm of Messrs Gillow. However, it would appear to have been further enriched in the popular mid 18th century 'Chinese Chippendale' style that was revived by publications such as K. Warren Cloustons The Chippendale Period in English Furniture, London and New York, 1897. Its sarcophagus-scrolled bracket feet correspond to a pattern in Chippendale's Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, 1754 (pl.136); while its hood, with its pagoda-like and fret-railed pediment framed by acanthus-wrapped trusses corresponds to the adjoining pattern on the same plate.
For a fuller discussion of Chippendale's influence on some Gillow casework and an example of a longcase of related design by Joshua Harrocks see Susan E. Stuart, ''A Neat Clock Case Ornamented''/A 1760 Gillow drawing discovered, Antiquarian Horology, December 1984, pp.125-141.