The Falseplate Tompion circa 1678

12¼ inches

Ebony on oak carcass surmounted by a gilt-brass foliate-tied handle on a fine cast gilt-brass basket top, modelled with birds, swags and foliage, sides with cast foliate and laurel wreath gilt-brass frets with apertures to view barrels, foliate scroll sound fret to the front door, bellflower escutcheons, moulded base on gilt-brass bun feet.

6 inch square gilt-brass dial signed Tho: Tompion London below the silvered chapter-ring with blued-steel hands, winged-cherub spandrels, shuttered winding holes.

7 by 8¼ inch plates with eight latched baluster pillars, twin fusees and spring barrels, hour strike and pull-quarter repeat on two bells, the repeat lever concealed behind a falseplate, this also concealing levers for bolt-and-shutter work, the backplate with scored line border and engraved with tulip designs to top and bottom, the backplate behind the falseplate left un-engraved, the false plate left engraved and un-gilded with tulips around a reserve signed Tho. Tompion Londini Fecit.

8-day.

Vehmeyer Collection, Netherlands.

Christie’s London, 3 Nov 2011, lot 114.

HM Vehmeyer, Clocks, their origin and development, 1320–1880. Snoek, 2004, vol. II, p.626-7.

Evans, Carter & Wright, Thomas Tompion 300 Years, 2013, p.314-315.

Garnier & Carter, The Golden Age of English Horology, 2015, p.44-47.