Beschreibung:

A fine James II gilt brass mounted ebony small basket top table timepiece with silent-pull quarter-repeat on two bells Henry Jones, London, circa 1685-90 The seven finned and knopped pillar movement with verge escapement regulated by short bob pendulum and silent-pull quarter-repeat sounding the hours and quarters on two bells mounted above the plates, the single line-bordered symmetrical foliate scroll and tulip bud engraved backplate signed Henry Jones, in the Temple to a leafy scroll bordered cartouche to centre, the 6.125 inch square brass dial with single winding hole to the finely matted centre within applied silvered Roman numeral chapter ring with squat stylised fleur-de-lys half hour markers and Arabic five minutes within the narrow outer minute track, with pierced steel hands and winged cherub mask cast brass spandrels to angles, the ebony veneered case with hinged tied floral bud, bird's head and dolphin cast handle to the foliate pierced domed 'basket' caddy surmount decorated with cherub masks, Ho-Ho birds and floral swags flanked by figural terms to angles over ogee cornice top moulding and glazed front door applied with gilt foliate scroll mounts to jambs, the sides with conforming rectangular windows beneath lozenge-shaped repousse brass sound frets centred with cherub mask motifs, the rear with further rectangular glazed door set within the frame of the case, the base with shallow ogee moulded skirt over brass disc feet, 32cm (12.5ins) high excluding handle. Henry Jones is an important maker who is recorded in Loomes, Brian Clockmakers of Britain 1286-1700 as born to William Jones at Boulder, Hampshire in 1634. He was apprenticed to Edward East in August 1654 gaining his Freedom of the Clockmakers' Company in July 1663. Jones is thought to have initially worked as journeyman to Edward East before setting up on his own in the Inner Temple, London by 1772. In 1775 he is recorded as 'in Inner Temple Lane' prior to being appointed as an Assistant of the Clockmakers' Company the following year. Henry Jones was subsequently made a Warden in 1687 and finally served as Master of the Company in 1691. Amongst his many apprentices were Francis Robinson (freed 1707) and two of his sons, Henry (freed April 1678) and William (not freed). In 1692 Jones gave the Clockmakers' Company £100 'for the use of the poor'; he died in 1694 leaving his workshop in the hands of his widow, Hannah, who is known to have supplied clocks signed in her name. The current lot is designed to sound the hours and quarters on two bells only on demand. This form of quarter repeat mechanism is thought to have been devised for night-time use in the bedroom; whilst striking clocks with quarter repeat facility were generally intended to be utilised downstairs during the day and upstairs at night. As a consequence 'silent-pull' quarter repeating timepieces are rarer as the original owner have to have been extremely wealthy to afford a timepiece reserved exclusively for use in the bed chamber. The design of the repeat mechanism used in the current lot is essentially based on the system used by Joseph Knibb as described and illustrated in Allix, Charles and Harvey, Laurence HOBSON'S CHOICE pages 36-7. The design and execution of the engraved decoration to the backplate of the current lot can be very closely compared to that of the only known table clock by Peter Knibb which is illustrated in Lee, Ronald A. The Knibb Family, Clockmakers page 129, plate 139. Lee also illustrates (on the preceding page, plate 138) another closely related backplate for a clock by John Knibb, Oxford and notes that both have internal rack striking, which would suggest that each date from the mid 1680's. The dial, with its distinctive relatively strong concentric engraving and squat fleur-de-lys half hour markers to the chapter ring, is typical of the work of Henry Jones; whilst the form of the case appears relatively early and can be compared to an example housing a movement by W