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Lot 71
An historic mid 19th century patinated and silvered bronze travelling alarm clock Gordon, London, no.582
11 December 2019, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond StreetSold for £2,932.50 inc. premium
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An historic mid 19th century patinated and silvered bronze travelling alarm clock
Gordon, London, no.582
The case constructed of heavy cast panels screwed together, with ball feet and finials and a gilt scroll handle, the 3.5 inch signed silvered Roman dial with strike/not strike lever above XII, blued steel hands and a brass hand for the alarm, the substantial twin chain fusee movement with gilt monometallic balance mounted vertically on the backplate, to a lever escapement, the rack strike sounding on a large bell, the separate alarm train set via a male key at XI and wound via a female key at I, together with the original cruciform key (one terminal repaired, the other missing). 20cms (7.5ins) high.
The case constructed of heavy cast panels screwed together, with ball feet and finials and a gilt scroll handle, the 3.5 inch signed silvered Roman dial with strike/not strike lever above XII, blued steel hands and a brass hand for the alarm, the substantial twin chain fusee movement with gilt monometallic balance mounted vertically on the backplate, to a lever escapement, the rack strike sounding on a large bell, the separate alarm train set via a male key at XI and wound via a female key at I, together with the original cruciform key (one terminal repaired, the other missing). 20cms (7.5ins) high.
Footnotes
Provenance:
By family tradition, this clock was in the regimental guard room at Jhansi during the Indian Mutiny. The vendor's great grandfather was George Travis Radcliffe who married Mary Cumberlege on 21st September 1848. Mary's sister Margaret was the wife of Captain Alexander Skene.
Captain Skene of the 68th Bengal Native Infantry was British superintendent at Jhansi during the Indian Mutiny in 1857. At the first sign of unrest, he ordered all the families to take refuge in the fort. They remained under siege until the rebels offered to spare their lives if they surrendered. Skene agreed, believing that the Rani of Jhansi had guaranteed their safety, but all 56 who left the tower were killed when the left the safety of the fort. Rather than allow his own family to suffer the same fate, Skene killed his wife and two young daughters before shooting himself.
The clock then passed to Margaret's sister, Mary and thence by family descent to the vendor.
The massacre caused public outcry. Christina Rossetti was moved to write a poem:
In The Round Tower At Jhansi, June 8, 1857.
A hundred, a thousand to one; even so;
Not a hope in the world remained:
The swarming, howling wretches below
Gained and gained and gained.
Skene looked at his pale young wife:--
"Is the time come?"--"The time is come!"--
Young, strong, and so full of life:
The agony struck them dumb.
Close his arm about her now,
Close her cheek to his,
Close the pistol to her brow--
God forgive them this!
"Will it hurt much?"--"No, mine own:
I wish I could bear the pang for both."
"I wish I could bear the pang alone:
Courage, dear, I am not loth."
Kiss and kiss: "It is not pain
Thus to kiss and die.
One kiss more."--"And yet one again."--
"Good by."--"Good by."