A fine James II period walnut longcase clock by this early London maker.

The 10-inch gilt brass dial has a silvered Roman chapter ring with sword-hilt half-hour markers and an outer minute division, enclosing a finely matted centre with a subsidiary seconds dial below XII and a date aperture above VI. The dial is signed along the lower edge John Wise Londini Fecit and retains its original pierced and faceted steel hands.

The case is veneered in walnut of rich colour and patination, with a rising hood surmounted by a carved cresting centred by a shell, with pierced foliate carving beneath the cornice. The front of the hood is flanked by barley twist columns, repeated to the rear angles, and there are glazed side apertures. The trunk door is long and slender, with a cross grain walnut moulding. The base is similarly veneered and stands on four turned bun feet.

The 8-day movement has an anchor escapement and strikes the hours on a bell. It retains its original brass weights and pendulum, and survives with pleasing early character throughout. Inside the trunk there is an old paper presentation label which reads: ‘This clock was presented to Colonel Charles Henley by Mrs. Ethel Buchanan in memory of a pleasant time spent with him in exploring some of the ancient buildings in the City of London in the spring of 1907.’

Height: 8 ¼ in (204 cm)

* John Wise (1624–1690) was born in Banbury and apprenticed in 1638 to the lantern clockmaker Peter Closon through the Clockmakers’ Company. He was freed in 1646. He is recorded working first in London, then in Warwick from the 1650s to the later 1660s, before returning to London, where he made some of the most attractive early longcase, bracket and lantern clocks of the period. Examples of his work are in the Royal Collection, while a bracket clock movement by him is in the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter.

HW6693