Stock No.

Exhibit No.34

Height

10 feet 1 inch (3073 mm)

Case

The ogee-caddy top case with cross-grain walnut mouldings and burr walnut veneers. With pierced faux-sound frets to the shaped friezes above and below the main hood mouldings, set above brass-capped Doric columns and concave throat mouldings, the rectangular trunk door with gilt-metal spandrel mounts to the corners, the sides with ‘pouch’ extensions for the two pendula. The matching burr walnut panelled plinth raised on a single skirt with moulded block feet.

Dial

Specifically designed 15 by 16½ inch (381 by 419 mm) gilt-brass dial with dual, interlocking chapter rings for mean and solar time, each with its own subsidiary seconds ring above, each flanking the central ring with twin hands for annual calendar (the date of month indicated in four quadrants) and equation of time indication below the swept-ogee arch top, signed Dan. / Quare on the interlocking silvered chapter rings and London on the dial plate immediately below, the sculpted hands of blued steel, the matted chapter-ring centres with ring-turned winding holes, the margin-spaces of the dial plate with applied giltmetal masked spandrels of typical, but specially designed, Quare ornament.

Movement

The twin month movements, contained in a single large frame, the IX side pendulum beating mean solar time seconds, annual (Julian) calendar and equation of time (now 13 days out to the present Gregorian calendar); The III side pendulum beating sidereal seconds (0.99727 mean solar time seconds). Both pendula adjusted by calibrated rating nuts.

Twin anchors with two, mean and solar seconds, pendula

Duration

One month

Provenance

Possibly commissioned by Prince George of Denmark (d. 1708), consort to Queen Anne, but completed after his death and sold elsewhere;
Possibly thus acquired by William Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Devonshire, who, on the evidence of the Glynne equinoctial ring dial he commissioned,
was interested in high-end instruments and clocks; thence to his 3rd son;
Lord Charles Cavendish (1704-83); thence to his elder son;
The Hon. Henry Cavendish (1731-1810), FRS, noted scientist, the discoverer of hydrogen and known collector of precision clocks, whose residuary legatee was his cousin;
Lord George Henry Cavendish (1754-1834), ennobled 1831 as 1st Earl of Burlington (second creation), by whom possibly bequeathed to his 4th son;
The Hon. Charles Compton Cavendish (1793-1863), 1st Baron Chesham;
Thence by descent through the Lords Chesham, until sold in 1997 by 6th Lord Chesham, through Charles Lee, for £350,000;
The John C Taylor collection, inventory no.21

Comparative Literature

Garnier & Carter, The Golden Age of English Horology, 2015, Quare chapter
p.261-312

Literature

Ernest Watkins, Apollo, May 1938, p.275-276 illus.;
HA Lloyd, Some Outstanding Clocks Over 700 Years, 1958, illus. pl.88a;
J Betts, The Double Clocks by Daniel Quare, Antiquarian Horology, Spring
1998 p.30-35 illus.;
Harris, Letter, Antiquarian Horology, Summer 1998, giving the date of the
Greenwich Hospital clock as 1716;
Huygens’ Legacy, The Golden Age of the pendulum clock, 2004, p.262-267;
Garnier & Hollis, Innovation & Collaboration, 2018, p.374-377 (illus)

Escapement

Twin anchors with two, mean and solar seconds, pendula