James Stratton
Director
Lot 81
A good late 17th century ebony veneered striking table clock John Bushman, London
2 December 2025, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£5,000 - £8,000
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Lewis Walduck
Cataloguer
A good late 17th century ebony veneered striking table clock
John Bushman, London
The caddy top surmounted by a knopped brass handle over a finely moulded cornice and silk-backed sound frets to all four sides, with glazed panels below resting on a moulded base and block feet. The 6-inch brass dial with silvered Roman and Arabic chapter ring with cruciform half-hour markers, a matted centre with mock pendulum and oversized calendar aperture with wheatear-engraved surround, all framed by a pair of winged cherub-head spandrels to the lower corners and twin subsidiary dials above (the left with alarm setting, the right with strike/silent option it Will Strike/it Will not Strike). Signed between the two John Bushman London.
The movement with five knopped pillars and verge escapement powered by double gut fusees, further set with pull alarm work acting via a vertical T-shaped hammer, and pull quarter repeat work, repeating on a nest of six bells and striking on a large single bell. The backplate fully engraved with scrolls and foliage, signed in a central wheatear cartouche John Bushman London. Ticking and striking. 39cms (15.5ins) high.
The caddy top surmounted by a knopped brass handle over a finely moulded cornice and silk-backed sound frets to all four sides, with glazed panels below resting on a moulded base and block feet. The 6-inch brass dial with silvered Roman and Arabic chapter ring with cruciform half-hour markers, a matted centre with mock pendulum and oversized calendar aperture with wheatear-engraved surround, all framed by a pair of winged cherub-head spandrels to the lower corners and twin subsidiary dials above (the left with alarm setting, the right with strike/silent option it Will Strike/it Will not Strike). Signed between the two John Bushman London.
The movement with five knopped pillars and verge escapement powered by double gut fusees, further set with pull alarm work acting via a vertical T-shaped hammer, and pull quarter repeat work, repeating on a nest of six bells and striking on a large single bell. The backplate fully engraved with scrolls and foliage, signed in a central wheatear cartouche John Bushman London. Ticking and striking. 39cms (15.5ins) high.
Footnotes
John Bushman, a German-born watch and clockmaker was made a Brother of the Clockmakers' Company in 1692. Renowned during his lifetime, Bushman enjoyed a reputation comparable to that of his illustrious English contemporaries. A contemporary account, cited by R.W. Symonds in Thomas Tompion, His Life and Work (Batsford, 1951), records a visitor's impression: "We reached London at dinner time, that is after 2 o'clock, and in the afternoon drove to the celebrated clock maker's Bushmann. He is a German and had been established first in The Hague and then for many years in England, he makes as good clocks as Quare's or even Tompion's..." This praise places Bushman firmly among the foremost horologists of the late 17th century.
Provenance:
Sotheby's Important Watches, Clocks, Barometers, Horological Books and Mechanical Musical Instruments, London, 4th April 2001, lot 277.
Sotheby's Watches, Scientific Instruments, Barometers and Clocks, London, 18th December 1980, lot 338.
Literature:
Illustrated in Loomes, Brass Dial Clocks, Antique Collectors Club 1998 p346 and 347.