James Stratton
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Lot 90*
A late 17th century basket top ebony table clock Benjamin Wright, London
16 December 2015, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond StreetSold for £13,750 inc. premium
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Clocks (UK)
A late 17th century basket top ebony table clock
Benjamin Wright, London
the repousse brass basket with cherubs amongst foliate scrolls and centred by a floral swag, with tied bud handle and four finials over a moulded cornice, the sides with rectangular glass panels on a moulded base and brass turned feet, the front door with applied escutcheons and floral swags, the 6.5 inch square gilt brass dial with winged cherubs head spandrels framing the silvered Roman and Arabic chapter ring with bold Roman numerals and elaborate half hour markers encircling the finely matted centre with decorated date aperture, the movement with rectangular plates united by five knopped and ringed pillars, twin gut (now wire) fusees driving a verge escapement with knife edge, steel rod and brass pear-shaped bob, the hourly rack strike acting on a bell, the quarter repeat system using three bells and hammers, the backplate framed by a single line border and signed in a foliate cartouche to the centre Benjamin Wright, London within a symmetrical pattern of foliage and flower heads, with steel pendulum holdfast 38cms (15ins) high.
the repousse brass basket with cherubs amongst foliate scrolls and centred by a floral swag, with tied bud handle and four finials over a moulded cornice, the sides with rectangular glass panels on a moulded base and brass turned feet, the front door with applied escutcheons and floral swags, the 6.5 inch square gilt brass dial with winged cherubs head spandrels framing the silvered Roman and Arabic chapter ring with bold Roman numerals and elaborate half hour markers encircling the finely matted centre with decorated date aperture, the movement with rectangular plates united by five knopped and ringed pillars, twin gut (now wire) fusees driving a verge escapement with knife edge, steel rod and brass pear-shaped bob, the hourly rack strike acting on a bell, the quarter repeat system using three bells and hammers, the backplate framed by a single line border and signed in a foliate cartouche to the centre Benjamin Wright, London within a symmetrical pattern of foliage and flower heads, with steel pendulum holdfast 38cms (15ins) high.
Footnotes
Provenance:
Purchased from Arthur Ackerman & Son, Inc, New York, 24 January 1966.
Benjamin Wright was born in 1664, the same year as John Vanbrugh one of the great architects of the Baroque era. In April 1678 he was apprenticed to Abraham Prime, receiving his Freedom in July 1685. (See Loomes 'Clockmakers of Britain 1286-1700', Mayfield Books 2014). He died circa 1710, after which his widow Mary took on George Wright as an apprentice.