Height

7 foot 8 inches

Case

Convex throat mouldings, mulberry veneers with kingwood and boxwood border panels on an oak carcass. Cyma mouldings to the plinth with skirting. Numbered 223 on the leading edge of the trunk door. Forward-sliding hood with carved kingwood Corinthian capitals, elaborate walnut frets, original caddy top, gilt-brass ball finials to the four sides.

Dial

11 inch square gilt-brass dial with four latched feet, the matted centre with seconds ring and pinhole adjusted date aperture, silvered chapter-ring, sword-hilt half-hour and cross half-quarter marks, blued-steel hands; signed Tho=Tompion Londini Fecit below the chapter-ring. Cherub-and-foliage spandrels with scroll and foliate engraving (G.195) between; bolt-and-shutter lever at chapter X.

Movement

5¼ by 7⅞ inch plates with six latched baluster pillars, anchor escapement, large countwheel on backplate, punch-numbered 223 at base, bolt-and-shutter maintaining power, brass-rod pendulum with calibrated rating nut, numbered crank key with lignum vitae handle.

Duration

Month

Provenance

Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Company, circa 1930.

FH Green.

Arthur S Vernay, New York, USA.

Walter P Chrysler Jr collection, New York, USA, and sold Parke-Burnet Galleries, New York, USA, 30 April, 1960, lot 275 at $4,250.

Dr Peter Guggenheim collection, USA.

Literature

J de Serre, Country Life, 18 October 1930, fig. 5.

FH Green, Old English Clocks, 1931, p.35, pl. XXI & XXII.

Clare Vincent, ‘Magnificent Timekeepers’, MMA Bulletin, New York, 1972, fig. 7.

Evans, Carter & Wright, Thomas Tompion 300 Years, 2013, p.466-67.

Garnier & Carter, The Golden Age of English Horology, 2015, p.72-75.

Escapement

Anchor