A beautiful and rare Queen Anne period cream and polychrome lacquer table clock of 8-day duration with hour strike and pull quarter-repeat work.

The remarkable ‘japanned’ case is adorned on all four sides with polychrome flower and foliate spray decoration set against a cream ground colour and with elements in red and green. Within the japanning on the key drawer there are oriental figures in a garden observing the flowers and an insect.

The unusual design of the case is also of note as it is a hybrid of the best French and English cabinetmakers’ work. The gilt wooden sound fret above the dial to the front and sides beneath the inverted bell top is characteristic of Huguenot workmanship as is the concave key drawer which can be found on musical table clocks by Claudius Du Chesne. It also  retains its original gilt metal foliate carrying handle, two brass finials and four turned brass bun feet.

The 7-inch square brass dial with raised silvered chapter ring has a dummy pendulum aperture and inset datework above VI. The corner spandrels are of the wing and cherub’s heads variety typical of the period and there is a strike/silent lever above XII on the dial plate.

The 8-day knife edge verge movement has five ring turned pillars, hour strike and pull quarter repeatwork on four bells via four hammers. The exquisite backplate is  engraved with flowers and foliage and signed by the maker Peter Walker London within an elaborate foliate cartouche.

Height: 23 ¼ in (59 cm)

Width: 13 ½ in (34.25 cm)

Depth: 8 in (20 cm)

* Peter Walker was apprenticed to Andrew Savory in 1681 but he seems to have been affiliated to the Ironmongers’ Company. It was there that he signed the ‘Oath of the Allegiance’ to the King in 1697. His working address was Wild Street End and it is believed that he died in Amsterdam in 1730.

This wonderfully well preserved clock is discussed and illustrated in fig.12 on page 214 of Antiquarian Horology, Vol.32, No. 2, June 2010.

Provenance:

An American Private Collection

References:      Robert Donaldson,  Early Japanned Table Clocks, Antiquarian Horology, Number 2 Vol. 32, June 2010, pp. 201-219

                           Cescinsky & Webster., English Domestic Clocks, Chancery House Publishing, 1976,  pp. 279-  282