GEORGE CLARKE, LONDON, CIRCA 1740

Details

A GEORGE II WALNUT MUSICAL LONGCASE CLOCK
GEORGE CLARKE, LONDON, CIRCA 1740
CASE: the arched hood with repouse brass sound frets to the arch and sides, outset faceted glass columns, glazed side panels, the trunk with bevelled mirrored panels and beaded mouldings, on a conforming stepped plinth; DIAL: the dial signed ‘Geo: Clarke in Leadenhall Street, London’, globe moon and tune selection hand to arch, subsidiary dials for ‘strike/silent’,’ chime/not chime’ and age of moon; MOVEMENT: the three train movement, striking the hour on a large bell and playing one of twelve tunes every third hour on fifteen bells via twenty seven hammers, recoil anchor escapement, crutch with beat adjustment, strike trip repeat, music trip repeat, shaped plates with ten pillars and 13 3/4in. long pin barrel to back of movement, three brass cased weights, pendulum with steel rod and brass bob
103 in. (261.6 cm.) high; 26 in. (66 cm.) wide; 13 in. (33 cm.) deep

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Lot Essay

George Clarke (active 1725-40, d.1766.) worked in Leadenhall Street. He produced some extravagant musical longcase and table clocks for export to the Near and far East. Britten (Old Clocks and Watches and their Makers, 7th edition) states ''the Earl of Macartney, our first ambassador to China, mentioned as a prominent object in the palace of the Chinese Emperor at Pekin, a musical table clock inscribed 'George Clarke'. Another by him was in the Wetherfield Collection (E.Bruton The Wetherfield Collection of Clocks, London, 1981, p. 110) and a table clock for the Turkish market, glass mounted with conforming outset columns to the present clock, is in the drawing room of Goldsmiths Hall, London.

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