A fine George III period ebonised pearwood bracket clock with enamel dial and hour strike of small proportions by this well-known London maker.

The case has a break-arch top with a brass carrying handle above a moulded arch and a glazed front door. The sides have arched sound frets backed with red silk, and the front angles are set with contrasting lighter inset panels. The base has successive mouldings and stands on four brass bracket feet. The dark surface of the case is relieved by the gilt-metal mounts and the lighter colour to the edges of the mouldings.

The break-arch dial is signed HALEY, LONDON and has a white enamel chapter ring which has Roman hour numerals and an outer minute circle. It is framed by a gilt brass repoussé mask with rococo scrollwork, and in the arch there is a subsidiary strike/silent dial. The clock retains its finely pierced gilt brass hands.

The twin-fusee 8-day movement strikes the hours on a bell and is governed by the strike/silent selection in the arch. The backplate is signed by the maker Haley and is engraved with scrolling foliate ornament centred by a basket of flowers, while the pendulum holdfast and bob are also engraved. The movement is secured to the case by brackets to either side, and the bell is mounted above within the arch of the case.

Date: circa 1780 – 1785

Height: 11 in (28 cm)

*Charles Haley of Wigmore Street was a late Georgian London clock and watchmaker. The British Museum records him with life dates of 1762–1823, at Wigmore Street, London, and notes him as a member of the Clockmakers’ Company from 1781 to 1823, with a patent for a marine chronometer in 1797.

A curatorial note in the British Museum’s catalogue of a Haley pocket chronometer adds that Charles Haley of 7 Wigmore Street was made a Freeman of the Clockmakers’ Company in 1781, that he was a pioneer chronometer maker, that he was granted patent no. 2132 in 1796 for a constant-force escapement, and that he was appointed by the Select Committee of the House of Commons to report on Mudge’s timekeepers and application for a reward.

The Survey of London records that the corner house later numbered 24 Wigmore Street, then 7, was occupied from 1784 until its rebuilding in 1893 by successive makers of clocks and watches, beginning with Charles Haley, described there as a patentee of chronometers and regulators.

Surviving work by Haley includes high-grade marine chronometers and watches, and the National Trust preserves a watch described as by “Chas. Haley, 7 Wigmore Street, London, No. 1813.”

HW6712