Andrew Brown Edinburgh
LONG CASE CLOCK C.1695
2335 x 456 x 268 mm £ POA
Long case clock with eight day three train weight driven mechanism. Playing two tunes with an interchangeable pin barrel offering two more: Barrel one, ‘The Kirk Wad Let me Be’ and ‘St Simon the King. Barrel two, ‘The Bonnie Broom’ and ‘King Injoy his Own Agin’. Twenty six hammers playing on thirteen bells and one single bell for striking the hours.
10 ¾ inch square brass dial with silvered Roman and Arabic numeral chapter ring and subsidiary dial for counting seconds. The chapter ring signed ‘Andrew Brown Edinburgh’. Square cut bevelled aperture to show the silvered date ring and three winding apertures with turned frame. Four cast brass cherub spandrels to the quarter corners and three pierced blue steel hands.
Andrew Brown (1665-1712) was a prominent Edinburgh maker who had been apprenticed to Umpa (Humphrey) Milne or Mills, an English clockmaker admitted to the Edinburgh Hammermen in 1660. Several of Humphrey Milne’s rather severe early long case clocks survive, one of which is in the collection of National Museums of Scotland. It was possibly from this connection, and the fact that Brown is known to have made visits to London, that he learned how to make the new type of long case pendulum clock.
During thirty five years of business in Edinburgh, Andrew Brown became well known for his clocks and was elected Boxmaster (treasurer) of the Incorporation of Hammermen in 1689. He famously made a new steeple clock with pendulum mechanism for Magdalen Chapel, Edinburgh (1686) replacing one that had been made by his master, Humphrey Milne. Only a small number of Brown’s long case clocks remain, but one of his best is in the Advocates’ Library, Parliament Square, Edinburgh.
This clock, a similarly accomplished example of his output, is in a Dutch style case decorated with ‘seaweed’ marquetry that was popular between 1690 and 1715. The sprays of foliage contained within shaped panels resemble seaweed fronds, or more obviously, endive leaves. Like many Dutch long case clocks of this period, the trunk door has a lenticle, through which the movement of the pendulum can be observed. The bun feet are also a Dutch feature.
Joseph Windmills London
LONG CASE CLOCK C.1671-80
2555 x 487 x 250 mm £ 32,000.00
Long case clock with eight day, two train weight driven mechanism.
Eleven inch square brass dial with silvered Roman and Arabic numeral chapter ring for hours and minutes, signed ‘J. Windmills London’. Subsidiary dial for counting seconds. Turned circle mouth to view the date and two turned circle apertures for winding. Cast brass spandrels of cherubs holding a crown in the quarter corners. Three finely pierced hands. Inside count wheel hourly striking on a bell.
Joseph Windmills, along with Joseph Knibb, Thomas Tompion and Daniel Quare, was one of the famous makers of the long case clock during its formative years in the late seventeenth century. He was admitted to the Clockmakers Company, the guild of the London clockmakers trade, in 1671.
He became Master of the Clockmakers Company in 1702 and took his son Thomas into partnership in 1704.
This tall narrow clock case with square, tiered hood and long trunk door is typical of the Dutch or ‘Hague School’ case fashionable in London around 1670-90. Elaborate marquetry in different coloured woods, suited to flat surfaces such as cabinet or clock case doors, was particularly associated with Dutch furniture of the period and masters of the art such as Jan van Mekeren, from Amsterdam, who was working in London from 1682. The subject of birds and identifiable flowers reflects the Dutch preoccupation with plant hunting and floral still life painting during the late seventeenth century. The floral decoration contrasts with the simple geometry of this case giving it a subtle Baroque appearance characteristic of this period.
John Brown Edinburgh
LONG CASE CLOCK c.1730
2405 x 525 x 255 mm £ (SOLD)
Long case clock with eight day three train weight driven mechanism. Brass break arch dial with silvered name boss signed, John Brown, Edinburgh and flanked by two cast brass spandrels of playful dolphins. Silvered Roman and Arabic numeral chapter ring for hours and minutes and Arabic numeral subsidiary dial for counting seconds. Cast brass spandrels at the quarter corners. Three turned winding apertures and a strike / silent lever at three o’clock. Three pierced steel hands. Quarter chime on eight bells and hour on a larger single bell. John Brown (fl. 1720-50) maker of this clock was probably the son of John Brown, clockmaker, and apprentice to Andrew Brown, who made Exhibit No.2 in this catalogue. He served as Boxmaster of the Edinburgh Incorporation of Hammermen 1745-48. The design of this case, with double arched cresting to the hood reflects the Baroque architecture current in Scotland at this period. Although mahogany was available in 1730, the case is veneered with walnut, which was fifty percent more expensive in the city of Edinburgh at this date. The dark colour, figured with grey, brown and blackish streaks, indicates that it was timber imported from Virginia. The fretted break arch border against a red silk backing is a feature of eighteenth century hood decoration that was retained from seventeenth century fashion.
John Mill Montrose
LONG CASE CLOCK C.1750
2260 x 535 x 260 mm £ 4,000.00
Long case clock with eight day two train weight driven mechanism. Brass break arch dial with silvered name boss signed, John Mill, Montrose and flanked by two cast brass spandrels of playful dolphins. Silvered Roman and Arabic numeral chapter ring for hours and minutes and Arabic numeral subsidiary dial for counting seconds. Square cut aperture for the date. Cast brass spandrels at the quarter corners. Two winding apertures. Three pierced steel hands. Hourly strike on a bell.
Montrose in the eighteenth century had a thriving community of clock and clock case makers. The town’s trade in timber was second only to that on the Clyde and the Burgh had its own dedicated Joiner and Cabinet Makers’ Society to regulate the prices of furniture and woodwork.
The quality of imported timber available to Montrose clock case makers is represented here by the expensive crotch mahogany door on the trunk of this clock. Crotch or ‘flame’ mahogany was obtained from the fork where a major limb branched out from the tree trunk or, more commonly after 1750, from the buttresses at the base of the tree. These were the most difficult to cut and very expensive to ship but they gave a length of ‘curl’ that was most suitable for clock case doors.
The case design is a simplified version of a Baroque double arched dome top, but with the added embellishment of three brass ball finials. Dolphins in the break arch spandrels relate to the coastal location of Montrose and the maker’s name is engraved in a roundel in the early eighteenth century manner.
James Gray Edinburgh
LONG CASE CLOCK C.1785
2260 x 530 x 275 mm £ 7,000.00
Long case clock with eight day two train weight driven mechanism. One piece brass and silvered break arch dial with a name boss signed ‘James Gray Edinburgh’ and flanked by finely engraved dolphins and seaweed spandrels. Hand engraved spandrels to the quarter corners. Roman and Arabic numeral chapter ring for the hours and minutes. Arabic numeral subsidiary dial for counting seconds within the elegantly hand engraved dial centre in flora and fauna. Square cut aperture to read the date. Three brass pierced hands. Hourly striking on a bell.
James Gray (fl. 1765-1806), one of the most notable makers of musical clocks in Edinburgh, was apprenticed in 1765 to Daniel Binny, becoming a freeman of the city in 1771. He traded from a shop in the west end of the Luckenbooths in the capital’s Old Town. At the time of his death in 1806 he was ‘His Majesty’s Clock and Watch Maker in Scotland’, one of several makers to claim this title.
This clock case has the typical Edinburgh feature of fretted spandrels against a contrasting ground and the added enrichment of dentils to the swan neck cresting. The silvered dial is finely chased. Exceptional clocks such as this were often advertised in the city press to be sold by lottery.
John Smith Pittenweem, Fife
LONG CASE CLOCK c.1795
2160 x 510 x 270 mm £(SOLD)
Long case clock with eight day two train weight driven mechanism. Colour painted break arch dial with a rolling moon phase and high water pointer. Dial signed in the arch ‘John Smith Pittenweem’. Roman and Arabic numeral chapter ring for hours and minutes and Arabic numeral subsidiary dial for counting seconds. Square cut date mouth aperture. Gilt painted spandrels to the quarter corners. Two pierced brass hands for hours and minutes. Steel seconds hand and two steel pointers reading the moon age and high tide time. Quarter chiming on six bells and hourly strike on a larger bell. This smart clock in dark mahogany is an example of John Smith’s work sold to customers in the fishing villages of Fife and further afield. The hood is made in the best late eighteenth century Edinburgh style, while the trunk has inset quarter columns and a decoratively strung door with shaped top. This is a distinct local variation of the ‘arch and two points’, a profile that was popular in Edinburgh and which dates the clock to between 1785 and 1810. A clock of this quality would have been a costly item, but as it was a status symbol many householders would have been prepared to make the investment, particularly as this maker’s name had such cachet . John Smith (fl.1770-1814) specialised in intricate mechanical clocks often with musical movements. He employed the celebrated artist Alexander Nasmyth to paint the dials, but for more ordinary clocks he used local painters such as John Brown of Pittenweem. He acquired several aristocratic patrons, notably the Duke of Buccleuch, who purchased Smith’s most expensive clock for Dalkeith Palace. It is now at Bowhill, Selkirk. Latterly, his clocks were collected by the Queen Mother, who had examples at Clarence House and Castle of Mey.
John Smith Pittenweem, Fife
LONG CASE CLOCK c.1790
2025 x 490 x 260 mm £(SOLD)
Long case clock with eight day two train weight driven mechanism. Colour painted break arch dial with a rolling moon phase. Roman numeral chapter ring for counting hours and minutes and two Arabic numeral subsidiary dials for seconds and date. Four brass hands. Hourly striking on bell. This clock is similar to Exhibit No.6 but with slightly less embellishment to the case. It has blind instead of fully fretted spandrels and no dentils to the scrolled cresting. The case does however have a contrasting string detail around the trunk door. It is a handsome house clock with John Smith’s reliable eight day movement and characteristic moon phase mechanism. Like several other clock makers, Smith occasionally sold his clocks by lottery. His advertisement in the Edinburgh Evening Courant (1809) indicates that a clock such as this was valued at ten guineas. It is interesting that several Fife clockmakers, Smith being the most prominent, sprang from a tradition independent of Edinburgh. John Smith was fiercely proud of being from Pittenweem, but there is evidence in the eighteenth century Services to Heirs that his family originated in the County Town of Cupar and that he inherited property there. Smith had a fine house and workshop in the High Street, Pittenweem, numbers 19-21, contiguous with Kellie Lodging. He took several apprentices, including James Boyd of Cupar and George Lumsden Senior of Pittenweem. He is buried beneath a modest stone in Pittenweem Kirkyard with his spouse Helen Brown. It is known that Smith was a strongly religious man and that some of his clocks had movements that stopped chiming at twelve o’clock on Saturday night only to resume at the same time on Sunday night, having observed a peaceful Sabbath.
John Russell Falkirk
LONG CASE CLOCK C.1812
2350 x 570 x 300 mm £ 12,000.00
Long case clock with eight day three train weight driven mechanism with rare pin wheel escapement. Colour painted break arch dial and signed, John Russell, Falkirk, watchmaker to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales. Two subsidiary dials for Strike/Silent and Chime/ Silent and around the arch twelve Scottish Air selections.
The main dial with Roman and Arabic numeral chapter ring for the hours and minutes and inner numeral ring for date counting. Gilt painted spandrels to the quarter corners.
Heavy constructed mechanism and arranged to play the selected tune on a horizontal pinned cylinder spanning approximately fourteen inches as indicated by the cut out to the back board of the clock case. All musical function and hands for dial missing. Hourly striking on a bell.
John Russell fl.1783-1817, ‘a craftsman of more than ordinary ability’ and celebrated amongst makers of musical and ‘organ’ clocks, practised his craft in the Stirlingshire town of Falkirk, centre of the Scottish iron founding industry from the seventeenth century. He advertised and sold his clocks in Falkirk, Edinburgh and further afield, making special exhibition models which he sold by lottery like his contemporaries John Smith in Fife and James Gray in Edinburgh.
He styled himself ‘Watchmaker to His Royal Highness the Prince Regent’ based on orders for timepieces received from Carlton House, London, in 1812.
This gigantic Edinburgh style clock case is considerably wider than the standard model with fretted spandrels laid against green silk and the break arch inscription: ‘John Russell, Watch Maker To His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, Falkirk’.
Charles Robotham Leicester
LONG CASE CLOCK c.1795
2470 x 590 x 373 mm £14,500.00
Long case clock with eight day three train weight-driven mechanism with musical chimes on twelve bells and automaton display in the break arch of the dial depicting a sextet with conductor in motion to the music. Striking the hours on a single bell.
Colour painted break arch dial with a stage of musicians. The quarter corners with floral decoration of painted carnations and roses. A Roman and Arabic numeral chapter ring for hours and minutes and a subsidiary dial marked with the days of the week and giving a new tune for each day. Two finely pierced brass hands for hours and minutes and one pierced steel hand for daily selection.
Dial signed ‘Robotham’.
Charles Robotham is unrecorded in the major sources of watch and clockmakers for England, but he is listed in British Clock and Watchmakers’ Apprentices as having taken six apprentice journeymen between 1780 and 1796.
His accomplished clock movements appear in a variety of different cases for which there is no consistent style or maker.
This musical clock is housed in what appears to be an Edinburgh style case with the extra ornaments of branch carved, rather than fretwork spandrels, cushion moulding on the trunk and cast metal capitals to the columns.
Thomas Ogden Halifax
LONG CASE CLOCK c.1760
2770 x 675 x 313 mm £ POA
Massive long case clock with eight day three train weight driven mechanism with quarter chiming on three bells and hourly striking on a single bell. Framed brass and silvered break arch dial. Hand engraved silvered Roman and Arabic numeral chapter ring for hours and minutes and subsidiary dial for counting seconds. Roundel aperture above six o’clock for the date. Three pierced steel hands.
Cast brass spandrels to the quarter corners and within the break arch are hand engraved information panels to explain the passage of the sun in the zodiac. The painted rolling sun rise and fall each day around our globe and a rising and falling mask to indicate hours of daylight throughout a year’s period.
Thomas Ogden (1692-1769) was from a dynasty of Quaker clockmakers in Halifax, West Yorkshire. His clocks are prized by collectors because of their distinctive features and innovative mechanisms.
Unlike most other Quaker clockmakers known for their understatement, Ogden was not afraid to put his movements in unusual and sometimes ostentatiously large cases, which found favour amongst captains of industry in the West Riding.
This clock stands out in Thomas Ogden’s repertoire in having a disc above the main face with a map of the Northern Hemisphere ‘Showing the Longitude and Latitude of Some Noted Places’. The rising plate behind shows the length of day. This arrangement replaces Ogden’s usual feature of inset ‘time ball’.
The hood is particularly massive, with paired scrolls flanking a pagoda finial on carved platform. In the spandrels beneath, dolphins and sea fronds are painted in verre églomisé.
In a Baroque conceit, inset half columns behind the main fluted Corinthian columns of long case clock c.1760 Thomas Ogden Halifax 2770 × 675 × 313 mm 10 the front create illusory reflection. The trunk door has a shaped top and stringing detail, but the column capitals and bases are all carved wood, not gilt metal.
Thomas Reid Edinburgh
LONG CASE CLOCK c.1800
2270 x 460 x 235 mm £8,500.00
Long case clock with eight day two train weight driven mechanism. Brass break arch dial with silvered brass fan shaped name boss signed ‘Thomas Reid Edinburgh’ upon the hand engraved arch with small aperture for lever selection for striking. Roman and Arabic numeral silvered chapter ring for hours and minutes and Arabic numeral subsidiary dial for counting seconds. Within the centre of the dial a wide scape mouth aperture showing the large diameter annular calendar ring. Four cast brass spandrels to the quarter corners. Three blue steel hands. Hourly striking on a bell.
Thomas Reid (fl.1762-1803) was born at Dysart, Fife in January 1746 and apprenticed to clockmaker James Cowan, whose business he inherited in 1781. He made the first clock for St Andrews Church in the Edinburgh New Town, 1788 and refurbished the old clock at St Giles Cathedral in 1797.
He formed a co-partnership with William Auld in 1806, trading from a shop in The Luckenbooths, Edinburgh Old Town until their move to more spacious modern premises at 33 Princes Street in 1809. Reid was at the forefront of technological advance in Edinburgh, publishing his ideas in a book On Clock and Watch Making, Edinburgh, 1826. Thomas Reid died in Edinburgh on 24th September, 1831.
The maker of Reid’s clock cases is unknown, but he must have employed one of the city’s top cabinet makers as they are of the highest quality and expensive timber. This is a typical example, with cross banded door and crisply stop fluted corner pilasters enhancing the clarity of the silvered face.
William Goffe London
LONG CASE REGULATOR c.1825
2040 x 455 x 250 mm (SOLD)
Long case regulator with eight day weight driven mechanism. Twelve inch diameter vertical grain brass and silvered dial with fine hand engraved chapter ring in Arabic numerals and subsidiary dials for counting seconds and Roman numerals for the hours. Three fine steel pointers. Single aperture for winding and signed ‘William Goffe London’.
Massive constructed six pillar single train mechanism with maintaining power and jewelled escapement and jewelled Grahams dead beat escapement. The frame dust protected and all bearings capped.
Small drive weight and glass vessel, mercury filled pendulum.
William Goffe is recorded as a clockmaker in both London and Falmouth in the south of Cornwall, where he was ‘Chronometer Maker to His Majesty’s Packets’. Packets were ships designated to deliver coastal and overseas Royal Mail and Falmouth was an important Packet Station from 1688 to 1850.
Appropriately, Goffe was known for the accuracy of his chronometers, and he favoured Gothick cases for his domestic clocks, perhaps in line with Cornish taste at the time. The hood of this silvered brass faced clock is picturesquely styled as a lancet arch with ball topped pinnacles inlaid with quatrefoils. The canted corners are inlaid with tracery and the long trunk door has a pointed arch glass front to show off the regulator mechanism.
J.F.B.Donaldson Edinburgh
LONG CASE REGULATOR 1816
1915 x 440 x 228 mm £22,000.00
Long case regulator with eight day weight driven mechanism. Flat vertical grain brass and silvered dial with neatly arranged hand engraved chapter ring in Arabic numerals and subsidiary dials for counting seconds and hours. Three steel hands with moon pointer. Single aperture for winding and signed ‘J.F.B. Donaldson Edinburgh’.
The mechanism a heavy constructed six pillar frame for the single train with Grahams dead beat jewelled escapement, maintaining power function and massive grid pendulum with noticeable small drive weight. Back plate signed ‘Reid and Auld Edinburgh 1816’.
J F B Donaldson is not recorded as a clockmaker in Edinburgh, but the dial of this regulator is engraved with his name. The clock appears to be the product of a trade collaboration, as the movement is signed by the celebrated firm of Reid & Auld and dated 1816. The case, with its unusual, flattened basket arch cresting, is almost identical to those used by Reid & Auld for their best regulator clocks such as those made earlier in the nineteenth century for Lord Gray of Kinfauns and the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh.
This long case can be identified as Edinburgh cabinet work from the prominent reel moulding on the hood corners, flanking the face. This distinctive repetitive turned moulding imitates yarn reels or bobbins. Where there might more usually have been a fine crotch veneered panel on the trunk door is a long glass plate, revealing the ‘gridiron’ regulator pendulum behind.
John McFadden Edinburgh
LONG CASE REGULATOR 1832
1995 x 475 x 260 mm £18,000.00
Long case regulator with eight day weight driven mechanism. Fourteen inch diameter vertical grain brass and silvered dial with fine hand engraved chapter ring in Arabic numerals and subsidiary dials for counting seconds and Roman numerals for the hours. Three fine steel pointers. Single aperture for winding.
Massive constructed five pillar single train mechanism signed ‘John B. McFadden AD. 1832’, with maintaining power and jewelled escape wheel bearings and jewelled Grahams dead beat escapement. The frame dust protected and all bearings capped.
The movement of this regulator clock is engraved with the name of John McFadden, an unrecorded maker, and dated 1832. The front plate of the mechanism however is stamped 'Condliff, Liverpool'. It is housed in an austere Egyptian Revival case of pylon form.
Egyptian Revival architecture and interior decoration enjoyed a particular pedigree in Scotland, beginning with the work of late eighteenth century Edinburgh architect James Playfair and continuing into the early nineteenth century to accompany a national fascination with Napoleon Buonaparte and his Egyptian campaigns. Application of the style to furniture was relatively rare, although Scottish/Dutch designer Thomas Hope provided useful source material in his book Household Furniture and Interior Decoration 1807 and architect Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson is known to have designed some Egyptian style pieces. The long case clock provided the ideal subject for the tapering shape of the pylon, a feature found on Egyptian temple gateways. Also from temple decoration are the abstracted motifs of lotus leaf and repetitive columnar moulding on the pediment of this clock.
George Lumdsen Junior
Pittenweem
LONG CASE CLOCK c.1850
2265 x 500 x 245 mm £(SOLD)
Long case clock with eight day two train weight driven mechanism. Colour painted break arch dial with a scene of sailing clippers at open sea and coastal sea fishing views in the quarter corners. Roman numeral chapter ring for counting hours and minutes and two Arabic numeral subsidiary dials for seconds and date. Four brass hands. Hourly striking on bell.
This mahogany case reflects the more ostentatious taste of fisher folk in the East Neuk of Fife, although the nautical scenes in the break arch and corners of this clock, undoubtedly the work of local painter/joiner John Brown, have been described as ‘demure’ when compared to some fancier examples. The hood is made in the Edinburgh style with high stepping swan necks, but with the addition of spiral turned columns in Cuban mahogany, a gilded band around the chapter ring and cushion moulding to the top of the trunk. The trunk door has an ‘ashet lid’ moulding that was a characteristic of Lumsden’s clocks.
David Lumsden Anstruther
LONG CASE CLOCK c.1860
2250 x 500 x 245 mm £5,000.00
Long case clock with eight day two train weight driven mechanism. Colour painted break arch dial with a sea scape featuring a three masted clipper with the Scottish standard to aft. Roman numeral chapter ring for the hours and minutes and two Arabic numeral subsidiary dials for counting seconds and date. Dial signed ‘D. Lumsden Anstruther’. Four Seasons at the quarter corners. Four pierced brass hands. Hourly striking on a bell.
David Lumsden, born in 1827, was a cousin of George Lumsden Junior of Pittenweem and nephew of George Lumsden Senior, with whom he served his apprenticeship in Pittenweem.
There was clearly enough local demand for three makers of the same family to be making and selling very similar clocks. As a prominent local citizen of this thriving coastal town, David Lumsden became a magistrate and member of the School Board of Anstruther. Although the painting of the clock face, showing a ship in full sail and the Four Seasons in quarter corners, is not as proficient as that on clocks by Lumsden Senior and Junior of Pittenweem, the same case maker has clearly been employed.
Caledonian Railway Company
WALL CLOCK c.1900
1500 x 444 x 225 mm (SOLD)
Long case wall clock with eight day single train weight driven mechanism with Grahams dead beat escapement and maintaining power. Tubular brass shelled pendulum bob with wood rod. Fourteen inch diameter white painted dial with Roman numeral chapter ring and Arabic numeral subsidiary dial for counting seconds. Three black painted brass hands. Dial signed ‘Caledonian Railway Company’. The Caledonian Railway Company, at one time Scotland’s most extensive service, was formed on 31st July 1845. Their main line between Glasgow, Edinburgh and Carlisle was opened on 15th February 1848. The network was greatly expanded after 1880, and further after the rebuilding of Glasgow Central Station from 1901-6. For obvious reasons, railway companies required large numbers of accurate clocks for their station platforms, booking halls, waiting rooms and offices. This large wall clock is one of the hundreds made during the period of expansion and was probably hung in an office or possibly a signal box. It must have been made before the company’s absorption into the London, Midland & Scottish Railway in 1923.
Eardley Norton London
TABLE CLOCK c.1770
525 x 310 x 205 £ 19,000.00
Table clock with a three train, eight day, spring drive fusee mechanism with a verge escapement. A silvered brass break arch dial with hand engraved signature and two subsidiary dials for clock control. One for chime/no chime, the other for four tune selection. Roman and Arabic numeral chapter ring for hour and minutes and square bevel cut aperture for date. Three winding apertures. Cast brass spandrels for the quarter corners. Four finely crafted blue steel hands. Quarter chiming on fifteen bells and hourly striking on a further bell. Numbered no. 795. Eardley Norton, 1728-94, of 49 St John Street Clerkenwell, was born in Lincolnshire and apprenticed to Robert Dawson of Alford, the county’s best known clockmaker. Subsequently established in London, he was accepted into the Clockmakers Company in 1762 and recorded as a maker from 1771-94. Norton, who became famous for his musical and astronomical clocks, was appointed Clockmaker to His Majesty George III. The four dial astronomical clock he made for the King is considered to be his finest work and is still in the Royal Collection. The clock illustrated is housed in a bias figured mahogany case with stop fluted corner pilasters and gilt brass ornaments. The same case maker continued to work for Eardley Norton’s successors, Gravell & Tolkien.
Thomas Reid Edinburgh
TABLE CLOCK c.1800
700 X 400 X 250 mm £ 10,000.00
Table clock with a three train, eight day, spring drive fusee mechanism of heavy construction. A white enamel on copper eight inch diameter dial with Roman and Arabic numeral chapter ring for hours and minutes. Dial signed ‘Reid, Edinburgh’. Three apertures for winding and arbor at twelve for fine regulation. Two finely pierced brass hands. Quarter chiming on eight bells and hourly striking on a coiled gong. This is one of Thomas Reid’s chiming movements for which he and his later partner William Auld became renowned. The case, in flame mahogany with reeded corner columns, fretwork crescents against red silk and sunk quarter panels below the face must be by the same skilled maker as the firm’s long case clocks although, as befits a bracket or table clock, it has more gilt embellishments
Anonymous maker Edinburgh
TABLE CLOCK c.1846
550 x 260 x 210 mm £ (SOLD)
Table clock with a single train eight day spring drive fusee mechanism of pierced brass construction. The skeleton clock structured as the Scott monument in Edinburgh. Mounted on a Carrara marble and rosewood base and under a glass dome. A circular brass and silvered Roman numeral pierced dial for hours and minutes. The single train rising up the slender spire to the jewelled lever platform escapement. At the base a gilded sculpture of the seated Scott. This skeleton clock, so called because its internal mechanism is uncased, reflects the cult of Romantic author Sir Walter Scott in his home city of Edinburgh. The buttressed Gothic pinnacle structure, imitating the 1846 monument in Princes Street Gardens that was designed by George Meikle Kemp, a carpenter by trade, shows Scott in seated pose, his faithful deerhound Maida at his side. The vaulted lower stage, in Kemp’s design a simplified part of Melrose Abbey, supports a steeple top to which a skeletal cut metal dial and chapter ring are attached. This is perhaps the most unusual, but unmistakably Scottish clock in the collection.
Jean Baptiste Deletrez Paris
MANTLE CLOCK c.1849
485 x 465 x 160 mm £ 4,800.00
French made two train, spring drive, eight day mechanism mantel clock. The polished slate case with three mechanisms and mercury thermometer. The clock with visible ‘Brocot’ escapement and half seconds pendulum action. Round white enamel on copper two level dial with Roman numeral chapter ring for hour, minute and half second sweep seconds hand. Two winding apertures and arbor above twelve for fine regulation and arbor at six for hand setting. Dial signed, W. C. Shaw, Paris. Below left the perpetual calendar mechanism, actuated by the striking at midnight and all pointers advance along with the rolling moon dial. Coloured enamel on copper two level dial reading months around the perimeter with two subsidiary dials for day and date. A rolling moon in the night sky. Below right an Aneroid Barometer with ‘Bourdon’ mechanism. Coloured enamel on copper two level dial displaying the weather change and scale in inches. Sweeping steel hand and brass pierced register hand. Stamped with Gold medal award at the Paris exhibition, 1849. Between the gilt frame for the mercury thermometer with white enamel on copper face and scale in Fahrenheit and notable temperature thresholds. Mechanism stamped J B D. for Jean Baptiste Deletrez.
James Gatty (or Gatti) London
WHEEL BAROMETER c.1785
1200 x 380 x 78 mm £ 8,500.00
Oversized 12 inch diameter weather change dial with sweeping pressure indicator hand in blue steel and recording hand in pierced brass behind. The large brass and silvered dial hand engraved with decorative central rosette and reading the weather change and scale in inches. The indicator hand controlled by the concealed open cistern glass tube filled with mercury within the wood case. Below the main dial is a turned ivory knob to move the register hand and track the weather pattern. Below the knob an inset silvered dial hand engraved with signature, James Gatty High Holborn, London. And aperture for a glass and spirit filled level. Above the main dial and fixed to the main case is a balloon case for a single train spring drive fusee timepiece mechanism with pendulum action. Silvered dial hand engraved with a Roman numeral chapter ring reading the time in hours and minutes and oversized chronometer style subsidiary dial with Arabic numerals for counting seconds. Three brass hands and dial signed, Jamison, Charing Cross. Above the glazed thermometer box for the mercury filled thermometer a silvered and hand engraved scale in Fahrenheit with notable temperature thresholds. Above is the hygrometer inset with silvered and hand engraved dial. The centre stud is fixed with an oat beard, taken from the plant, that bends according to the humidity. The wheel barometer, later known as a ‘banjo’ barometer, was invented around 1665 by English scientist Robert Hooke (1635-1703) ‘Curator of Experiments’ at The Royal Society, London. The large dial, showing atmospheric pressure, was adapted from the design for a long case clock face. One of the earliest makers of this type was 27 wheel barometer c.1785 James Gatty (or Gatti) London 1200 × 380 × 78 mm Hooke’s contemporary and clockmaker Thomas Tompion (1639-1713) who supplied three such wheel barometers to William III at Kensington Palace. These early instruments were kept in bedrooms or private apartments. A most celebrated and now highly sought after maker of Hooke’s design during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was the Italian Jacopo Gatti (anglicised to James Gatty) who brought his scientific instrument making skills to London, working from premises at 130 and 132 High Holborn, London, from 1785 to 1820.
Dolland London
STICK BAROMETER c.1805
1040 x 120 x 90 mm £ 4,500.00
Stick barometer/thermometer with a hand engraved silvered dial, slotted to accommodate the mercury filled tube for reading the weather change and pressure. Measured in inches with fine vernier in tenths, adjustable by the turned ivory knob below the main dial and showing the rise and fall of the mercury within the long glass tube with boxwood cistern and leather diaphragm. Separate glazed box for the mercury filled thermometer with silvered and hand engraved Réaumur scale (a scale that places the freezing point of water at 0°Ré and water boiling point at 80°Ré) and Fahrenheit scale with notable temperature thresholds. Dial signed ‘Dolland London’. Peter Dollond (1731-1820), son of Huguenot silk weaver John Dollond, started out as an oculist in London and became the leading optical instrument maker in late eighteenth century England. His family followed him into the business and the firm gained Royal Warrant. Their eminent customers included Captain Cook, Lord Nelson, Frederick the Great and Thomas Jefferson. In 1927, Dollond & Co. merged with the Scottish business Aitchison & Co. to become Dollond & Aitchison, until recently a familiar high street name. Although made by a firm of optical instrument, not clock makers, the case of this stick barometer is the work of a clock case maker who has adapted features of a long case clock hood, such as the scrolled pediment, to a smaller scale.
Alexander Adie & Son Edinburgh
STICK BAROMETER c.1823
1100 x 100 x 65 mm £ 12,000.00
Stick barometer/thermometer with a hand engraved silvered dial, slotted to accommodate the mercury filled tube for reading weather change and pressure. Measured in inches with fine vernier in tenths, adjustable by the turned ivory knob below the main dial and showing the rise and fall of the mercury within the long tube with boxwood cistern and leather diaphragm. Separate glazed inset for the mercury filled thermometer with silvered and hand engraved scale in Fahrenheit with notable temperature thresholds. Dial and thermometer signed ‘Adie and Sons Edinburgh’. This beautifully slender stick barometer was made by Alexander Adie & Sons, the innovative Edinburgh scientific instrument makers. Alexander Adie (1774-1858), an acclaimed meteorologist, is famed for his patented ‘Sympiesometer’ (1818) a type of barometer designed for marine use which contained hydrogen and almond oil instead of mercury. This instrument was first conceived by Robert Hooke in 1618, but never brought into practical use until perfected by Adie. Alexander had three sons, John (1805-57), Richard (1810-81) and Patrick (1821-86), all of whom were involved in the business. This bow fronted rosewood case is typical of early nineteenth century Edinburgh work, particularly the fleshy gadrooning to the pediment and cistern cover, which was a moulding style used by the celebrated cabinet maker William Trotter of Princes Street (fl. 1805-33).
Gardner & Co. Glasgow
STICK BAROMETER c.1880
910 x 100 x 80 mm £(SOLD)
Stick barometer/thermometer with two hand engraved ivory scales inclined to the tube for reading weather change and pressure. Measured in inches with fine vernier in tenths, adjustable by the turned knob below the main dial and showing the rise and fall of the mercury within the long tube with boxwood cistern and leather diaphragm. Separate glazed box for the mercury filled thermometer with hand engraved Réaumur scale and Fahrenheit scale with notable temperature thresholds. Dial signed ‘Gardner & Co 21 Buchanan Street Glasgow’. The Gardner firm of barometer makers was established by John Gardner (1734-1822), scientific instrument maker to the University of Glasgow. He had served his apprenticeship as an instrument maker with James Watt, inventor of the modern steam engine. The family company had many changes of address within the city during the nineteenth century but by 1880 were trading from fashionable premises at 21, Buchanan Street. By the middle of the nineteenth century Scottish barometer cases had assumed a standard form of semi circular topped rectangular face, narrow trunk and circular cistern. This is a good example by an anonymous casemaker who would have made similar cases for several different firms.
Nicole Frères Geneva
MUSICAL BOX WITH BELLS IN SIGHT
760 x 320 x 260 mm £ POA
Large musical box playing a selection of twelve airs. Musical notes provided by the revolving 500 mm pinned cylinder, plucking ninety one fingers of the steel comb. Also playing with eight hammers on a snare drum. Six hammers on six bells and six hammers on maracas. Driven by a hand wound crank and ratchet spring drive mechanism. Tune selection may be fixed or set to auto change. On/off lever for drums, bells, and maracas. Heavy constructed mechanism bolted within the marquetry inlay box with a scene on the outer lid of shepherds on the mountainside. Stamped ‘Nicole Frères, Geneve’.
A & W Geneva
MUSICAL BOX
600 x 260 x H.170 £ (SOLD)
Mid sized musical box playing a selection of eight airs. Musical notes provided by the revolving 33 cm pinned cylinder, plucking ninety two fingers of the steel comb. Driven by the hand wound crank and ratchet spring drive mechanism. Tune selection may be fixed or set to auto change. On/off lever and repeat or change lever. Sound damper for thirty fingers at the right side of the comb.
Adie & Sons Edinburgh
SUNDIAL c.1844
DIA. 300 mm (SOLD)
Sundial of brass construction. Twelve inch diameter and signed 'Adie and Sons, Edinburgh' and named Skerrevore. Made for the lighthouse constructed off the island of Tiree in 1844 by Alan Stevenson. The dial furniture laid out with a broad circular scroll of Roman numerals showing the shadow time from 3 am to 8 pm and indexed with five and two minute markers. An eight point compass rose and inner circular band with comparison tables for the Equation of Time. Heavy constructed gnomon at 56 degrees.
Eric Young Cupar, Fife
SUNDIAL 2019
DIA. 300 mm £ 1,850.00
Sundial of bronze and brass construction. Twelve inch diameter and signed ‘Eric Young Cupar 2019’. The dial furniture laid out with the outer Arabic numeral chapter scroll with half and quarter hour marks and five minute indexing. An eight point compass with the Equation of Time graph. Co-ordinates for Cupar and Longitude correction. Inscribed with motto ‘On time and there about’. Heavy constructed Swan and Cignet, brass and gold plated gnomon at 56 degrees.
This is an example of a dial we can make to your own design and location.
Archie McQuater Edinburgh
PLANETARIUM c 2012
405 x 410 x 410 mm £ POA
A Ptolemaic Planetarium. At the heart of this complex structure is a two train eight day spring drive mechanism with jewelled platform escapement and controls all movements. Earth at the centre with orbiting sun and moon and sidereal chapter ring with the zodiac signs. Orbiting the earth once in 23 hrs 56mins and 4secs, whilst also simulating summer and winter. Sun rotation once in 24 hours. Moon rotating once in 29.5 days. Six mechanisms controlled by the clock laid around the base structure: Minute Dial, signed ‘McQuater, Edinburgh’; Jumping hours; Jumping days; Moon phase; World time; Perpetual calendar.
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