A James II figured walnut & marquetry panelled Dutch striking and quarter chiming longcase clock

Henry Jones, London Circa 1685

An interesting James II figured walnut and marquetry panelled Dutch striking and quarter chiming longcase clock

Height
6 feet 10 inches (2082 mm)

Case
The case veneered in walnut on an oak carcass with floral marquetry panels. The cross-grain walnut main mouldings to the hood, the frieze with pierced walnut fret to the front, above the walnut Solomonic reflective columns, with integral turned capitals and bases, flanking a fine floral marquetry dial aperture. The trunk with convex throat mouldings and matching marquetry to its front, above the trunk door framed by cross-grain mouldings and inset with D-end floral marquetry panels with a circular glazed brass pendulum lenticle between, the base with a conforming marquetry panel on restored squat bun feet.
Dial The brass dial, 12 inches square, with 4 pinned dial feet, the silvered brass Roman chapter ring signed Henry Jones, London around VI with fleur-de-lys half hour marks and Arabic minutes outside their division ring, the matted centre with subsidiary seconds ring, chamfered and engraved date aperture, large gilt winged cherub corner spandrels, the hands finely pierced and shaped in blued steel.

Duration
8 days

Movement
The very substantial three-train hour striking 8-day movement with 6 latched baluster pillars, the going train with anchor escapement and seconds pendulum, the Dutch striking hour train on 2 bells and governed by an outside countwheel mounted direct onto the greatwheel arbor, the quarter train with internal countwheel chiming on a nest of 5 further bells.

Escapement
Anchor with one-second pendulum

Strike Type
Countwheel Dutch striking and quarter chiming

Provenance
Bonhams, 17 June 2003, lot 100, sold for £28,269;
The John C Taylor Collection, inventory no.118.

Comparative Literature
Stuart Kelley, ‘Henry Jones – Clockmaker of London, part II of VI’, Antiquarian Horology, September 2003


This combination of strike work is exceedingly rare on an English clock, utilising countwheel governance in the two strike trains; Dutch striking the hours using an outside countwheel on the large hour bell, the half-hours on a correspondingly smaller bell; but also quarter chiming, governed by an internal countwheel to the quarter train, on a graduated nest of five further bells.

Interestingly for a 1680s movement, the pillars are fixed to the backplate with raised-rivets, harking back to an earlier form and more usually seen on clocks of the 1660s. While the complex and massive movement necessitated a large 12-inch dial, which is unusual for this date, and its great weight apparently caused problems with the seatboard, which necessitated a good replacement.

https://www.johnctaylor.com/