James Stratton
Director
Property of a Gentleman
Lot 50
A good mid-18th century walnut quarter repeating table timepiece John Ellicott, London
2 December 2025, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£12,000 - £18,000
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Lewis Walduck
Cataloguer
A good mid-18th century walnut quarter repeating table timepiece
John Ellicott, London
The case surmounted by a brass carrying handle over an inverted bell top with a moulded edge, fluted sides, and pierced sound frets backed in green silk, the rear with a large glazed observation window, all terminating in a moulded base and further raised on four block feet. The 6.75-inch brass dial with silvered Roman chapter ring, Arabic five-minute markers, and lozenge half-hour markers, the matted centre signed in a cartouche John Ellicott, London above a mock pendulum aperture and winding square, framed by cast brass spandrels and a calendar subsidiary within the break arch. The single fusee movement with knopped pillars and verge escapement with short bob pendulum, the backplate finely engraved with a wheatear border and centred with flowing foliage and acanthus leaves, signed in a central cartouche John Ellicott, London, repeating the time to the nearest fifteen minutes via a nest of six graduated bells for the quarters and a further bell for the hour.
Currently ticking and repeating. 54cms (21.5ins) high.
The case surmounted by a brass carrying handle over an inverted bell top with a moulded edge, fluted sides, and pierced sound frets backed in green silk, the rear with a large glazed observation window, all terminating in a moulded base and further raised on four block feet. The 6.75-inch brass dial with silvered Roman chapter ring, Arabic five-minute markers, and lozenge half-hour markers, the matted centre signed in a cartouche John Ellicott, London above a mock pendulum aperture and winding square, framed by cast brass spandrels and a calendar subsidiary within the break arch. The single fusee movement with knopped pillars and verge escapement with short bob pendulum, the backplate finely engraved with a wheatear border and centred with flowing foliage and acanthus leaves, signed in a central cartouche John Ellicott, London, repeating the time to the nearest fifteen minutes via a nest of six graduated bells for the quarters and a further bell for the hour.
Currently ticking and repeating. 54cms (21.5ins) high.
Footnotes
John Ellicott was born in 1706, the son of a clockmaker of the same name. He was one of the outstanding clockmakers of the 18th century, producing a large number of high quality clocks for the home market and export, his work particularly valued by the Spanish Royal family. He developed his own temperature compensated pendulum and was instrumental in the perfection of the cylinder escapement. He was clockmaker to King George III, a position which paid £150 per annum. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society on the 26th October 1738 and published articles on clocks and an equation of time table in the Philosophical Transactions for the Society.
Provenance: Property of a Gentleman