Height | 15¼ inches |
Case | Breakarch, triple-pad, mahogany case veneered onto an oak carcass surmounted by curved-base handle, arched side panels with fishscale frets. The breakarch door with brass ovolo frame to the dial aperture, the base on brass moulded block feet. |
Dial | The 6¾ inch breakarch dial with rococo spandrels, subsidiary regulation dial calibrated 0-15 to the arch with blued-steel hand and square projection for use with a key. Strike/Not strike lever above XII, one piece silvered chapter-disc with Roman and Arabic numerals and calendar aperture above VI. Signed above the centre Mattw. Dutton London. Sculpted blued-steel hands. |
Movement | Fine twin-fusee movement, heavy 5½ by 7⅜ inch plates, five baluster pillars, going train with anchor escapement and spring-suspended lenticular pendulum, pivoted regulation platform mounted on top of the plates, adjusted through the dial. Strike train governed by rack-and-snail sounding the hours on a bell. The plain backplate signed Mattw. Dutton London No. 301. |
Duration | 8-day. |
Provenance | Christie’s, London, 26 Nov 1996, lot 231 (£12,377). |
Literature | Garnier & Carter, The Golden Age of English Horology, 2015, p.256-257. |
Escapement | Anchor. |
Mattw. Dutton, London, No. 301 circa 1795
A fine mahogany breakarch triple-pad top striking table clock
A very similar clock, no. 308, by Dutton was exhibited at London, Science Museum, British Clockmakers’ Heritage, 1952, cat. no. 161.
Mahogany was reserved for the more expensive table clock cases.