A GEORGE II EBONY STRIKING AND QUARTER REPEATING BRACKET CLOCK

CIRCA 1740, BY GEORGE GRAHAM, LONDON, NUMBERED 630

Details

A GEORGE II EBONY STRIKING AND QUARTER REPEATING BRACKET CLOCK
Circa 1740, by George Graham, London, numbered 630
The case with foliate-tied handle to the inverted bell top, pierced wood sound fret to the front door with gilt-metal escutcheon, the 5 x 6 inch dial signed GEO GRAHAM LONDON in the top flanked by silvered subsidiary dials for regulation and strike/silent, the silvered chapter ring with lozenge half hour markers and typical blued steel hands, the matted center with mock pendulum and calendar apertures with pin-hole adjustment, double-screened silver spandrels, latches to the dial feet and to the seven ringed pillars, verge escapement, pull quarter repeat on two bells on Tompion's system via blued steel interlocking levers, twin gut fusees, the backplate profusely engraved with scrolling foliage and with birds and a basket of fruit, the repeat signature GEO. GRAHAM LONDON beneath an engraved Indian mask, the base of the backplate punch-numbered 630, similarly engraved backplate securing brackets to the case
13in. (34cm.) high, 8in. (22cm.) wide, 6in. (15cm.) deep

Lot Essay

George Graham (circa 1673-1751) was apprenticed to Henry Aske in London until 1695. He left that workshop to work under Thomas Tompion as a journeyman and in 1704 married his Master's niece, Elizabeth Tompion. Soon thereafter, he became a partner with Tompion. Graham invented the deadbeat escapement in 1715, and both the mercury pendulum and cylinder escapement for watches in 1726. While he is purported to have made some 3,000 watches, he only made about 200 clocks. Dubbed by his contemporaries as 'Honest George Graham', he died a wealthy man and was buried in Wesminster Abbey alongside Thomas Tompion.