George Graham no.647, circa 1723

Exhibit no.18

13 inches

The wall-mounted miniature hooded case, veneered in superbly figured walnut onto an oak carcass. The forward-sliding break-arch hood with glazed side apertures below a small extended dome top, the door opening to reveal a hidden drop-in pin lock. The wall bracket with horizontal section dovetailed into the backboard, cross-grain mouldings and veneer to the lower visible section. The backboard with substantial double-screwed brass steadying bracket, fixing to the movement top-plate.

The 4½ by 5¾ inch break-arch brass dial signed Geo. Graham, London to the silvered shallow arch. The silvered chapter ring with Roman hours, lozenge half-hour markers and augmented dot-minutes, indicated by a restored well-scuplted blued-steel hour hand, and later minute hand. The finely matted centre with central alarm disc, set by the hour hand tail, with outer quarter division ring, Arabic hours and lozenge half-hours. The corners with Tompion’s miniature double-screwed ornate cherub’s head spandrels. The dial screw-fixed to the top and bottom plates of the posted movement.

The posted frame of lantern-type construction, the top and bottom plates held by circular section columns, with workshop-condensed feet and finials, and vertical plates for the wheelwork within. The top plate punch-numbered 647 forward of the pendulum cut-out; going train with crown wheel and knife-edge silent verge with gut pallets and short bob pendulum, alarm train with vertical mounted crown wheel and verge hammer arbor, all held by typically sturdy, shaped and pinned, screwed cocks. The top-plate screw-fixed to the substantial backboard bracket.

Bonhams, London, 14 December 1993, front cover and lot 113;

The Tom Scott Collection, inventory no.31;

Private collection UK.

Garnier & Carter, The Golden Age of English Horology, 2015, p.152-153.

Height 13 inches; width 7½ inches; depth 5½ inches

This is a particularly rare form of clock to survive; the hooded case appears to be unique, and the movement is constructed using typical Tompion/Graham stockroom lantern components that were finished to suit, while the outer chapter minute dots indicate  an upgrade to take a minute hand.

In Clocks and Their Value, 1968, De Carle records a Black strike bracket of this number by Graham in the possession of Sir Henry Barnard, but his Graham was actually  no.674.