Stock No.

Exhibit No.31

Height

32¼ inches (819 mm)

Case

Case design, attributed to Daniel Marot (1661-1752), of break arch form with oak carcass veneered in turtleshell, the ogee caddy top surmounted by a gilt brass figure of Apollo on a short pedestal with satyr mask above gilt-brass moulding with pierced gilt foliate ‘stomacher’ drape beneath, flanked by four multi-piece gilt-brass gadrooned finials on short pedestals above a gilt metal foliate frieze with cherubs interrupted at the front by the gilt-brass break-arch, sides with pierced gilt foliate panels, the chamfered angles with gilt-brass caryatid volutes and acanthus angle volutes beneath, on gilt-brass moulded base with gadrooned feet.

Dial

7¾ by 11½ inch (197 by 292 mm) break arch dial signed Tho Tompion LONDINI Fecit, gilt matted centre with mock pendulum aperture, double screwed female Minerva mask & foliage spandrels, standard silvered chapter ring, with paired subsidiary dials for pendulum regulation on the left, strike selection on the right, engraved Son.6/Sil.6/Son.1/Sil.1, a sectoral aperture in the arch displaying the day of the week in Spanish with appropriate deity and the date of the month aperture above.

Movement

The superb triple fusee full Grande Sonnerie movement with seven latched finned baluster pillars, pendulum spring-suspended from brass regulation bar, quarters able to strike on one or six bells, hours on a further bell. Trip quarter repeat via blued-steel interconnecting levers on the foliate engraved backplate (engraver: G.195) signed Tho Tompion LONDINI Fecit within a wheatear cartouche beneath a basket of flowers and over a pedestal, punch numbered 381 at the base of both plates.

Duration

8 days

Provenance

Probably commissioned by Prince George of Denmark for presentation by his wife, Queen Anne of Great Britain, to Archduke Charles von Habsburg (1685-1740), the Grand Alliance’s pretender to the Spanish throne during the War of Spanish Succession (Marlborough’s war);
The Time Museum, Rockford, Illinois, USA, inventory no.1161;
Sotheby’s New York, 2 December 1999, lot 81, sold for $2,092,500;
The John C Taylor collection, inventory no.33

Literature

Horological Masterworks, 2003, p.220-225;
Huygens’ Legacy, The Golden Age of the pendulum clock, 2004, p.252-255;
J L Evans, Thomas Tompion at the Dial and Three Crowns, 2006, listed p.78;
Evans, Carter & Wright, Thomas Tompion 300 Years, 2013, p.396-399;
Garnier & Hollis, Innovation & Collaboration, p.362-365

Escapement

Pivoted verge with spring-suspended lenticular pendulum