A rare small and versatile George II period bracket clock in a bell top case veneered with burr walnut and having cross grain moulding.

Standing on moulded block feet, the case is surmounted by a brass carrying handle. The break arch brass dial is mounted with corner spandrels, silvered chapter ring, a silvered alarm disk and two subsidiary dials in the arch for strike/silent and rise and fall regulation. Between the two subsidiary dials is a cartouche signed by the maker John Wady, LONDON. The centre is fully matted with a false pendulum aperture and a second aperture to view the day of the month.

The two-train fusee movement has a duration of eight days and includes a quarter repeating mechanism sounded on six bells and a separate bell for the alarm and hours. The alarm is one of several rare features included in the clock. The hour is set from the centre disk on the dial and the alarm wound by a pull cord to the side of the clock. One of the rarest and most desirable features of the clock is the inclusion of a silent verge escapement so enabling the owners to use it in both their living quarter and bedroom. The backplate is nicely engraved in a scroll design. The clock is in a remarkably good state of preservation throughout.

Date: circa 1740

Height: 15 ¼ in (39 cm)

* John Wady is recorded on page 633 of Britten’s Old Clocks & Watches and Their Makers as working in London circa 1740.

HW6506