An impressive George III period brass dial hour-striking red and gilt chinoiserie lacquer longcase clock by this London maker.

The case is finished in well-preserved red lacquer, extensively embellished with gilt foliate scrolls, diaper borders and line-work throughout. The hood has a pagoda top incorporating a wooden carved gilt fret, flanked by two wooden gilt ball finials, and fronted by a glazed door with columns on either side, with gilt top capitals and bases. The arched trunk door is decorated with two painted panels, the upper portraying a scene of a fortune teller and pickpocket and the lower a classical pastoral scene with livestock and a seated shepherd in the foreground. The base is further enriched with a larger painted chinoiserie-style scene featuring architecture and figures within a landscape.

The break-arch dial has a raised silvered brass chapter ring engraved with Roman hours and an outer minute track with Arabic five-minute markers. The finely matted centre features a subsidiary seconds dial below XII and a calendar aperture above VI, while the arch contains the strike/silent lever. The maker’s signature Tho:son Fitter, London, is engraved on a raised silvered cartouche to the lower centre. The clock retains its finely pierced steel hands.

The substantial 8-day movement has an anchor escapement which is regulated by a long steel rod pendulum with brass lenticular shaped bob, powered by two brass dome topped weights. It has five knopped pillars and strikes the hours on a bell.

Height: 98 ½ in (250 cm)

Width: 20 ⅞ in (53 cm)

Depth: 9 ⅛ in (23 cm)

*Thomason Fitter is recorded as working in London in the third quarter of the 18th century and is listed on page 269 in Loomes’ Watchmakers and Clockmakers of the World.

HW6410