Beschreibung:

Y AN ARCHITECTURAL EBONY EIGHT-DAY VERGE HOODED WALL TIMEPIECE ATTRIBUTED TO JOHN HILDERSON, LONDON, CIRCA 1660-65 AND LATER The single train key-wound weight-driven movement with verge escapement regulated by short-bob pendulum incorporating knife-edge suspension, the plates measuring 8.75 by 3.5 inches united by four generous baluster-turned pillars pinned to the rear and now boldly inscribed in flamboyant scrolling script John Hilderson, Londini Fecit over pendulum holdfast hook to the backplate, the 8.75 inch square gilt brass dial with six-petal rose engraved decoration to the finely matted centre within an applied narrow silvered Roman numeral chapter ring with stylised simple fleur-de-lys half hour markers and Arabic five minutes within the outer minute track, with fine sculpted steel hands and conforming matting to spandrel areas within a narrow burnished border to the edge of the plate, now secured via an angled catch into a re-constructed ebony veneered architectural hooded wall case of indeterminate age with fine complex mouldings to the triangular pediment over raised mouldings to the fixed glazed dial aperture and conforming rectangular side windows to the rising hood, the bracket with ogee-shaped mouldings to the table over simple cavetto-fronted side brackets, the backboard fitted with iron hanging eye to top and short spurs to base. 47.5cm (18.75ins) high, 31.5cm (12.375ins) wide, 16.5cm (6.5ins) deep. John Hilderson is recorded in Loomes, Brian Clockmakers of Britain 1286-1700 as most likely an immigrant (possibly Dutch) due to the many different spellings of his name. Loomes notes that an individual with this name first appears as an Ensign in the Royalist Army in 1642 then again as a captain in Lord St. John's Regiment of Foot under the Earl of Essex in the Parliamentary Army, but comments that this military man may be him or someone quite unrelated. In 1652 a 'John Hendrickson' was given leave to work as a journeyman for the clockmaker John Champion. Hilderson was apparently never officially admitted into the Clockmaker's Company but was allowed to take apprentices namely Samuel Hayley in 1657 and Thomas Watson in 1662. In July 1656 John Hilderson married Susan Watson; he was last mentioned in the Company archives in 1662 and died in 1665 possibly of the plague. John Hilderson worked from Chesell Street and is believed to have had strong connections with Edward East due to the unmistakable similarities in their work. He was clearly a highly regarded maker as he was asked to repair/remake one of the two Bruse-Oosterwijck pendulum sea clocks that had been badly damaged due to a storm during passage across the British Channel in 1662. The movement and dial of the current lot were sold at Bonham's sale of Fine Clocks, 28th June 2011 (lot 100) for £7,800. At that time they were housed in a later mahogany table clock case, had been converted to run with a spring and fusee, and were unsigned. The movement has subsequently been carefully and knowledgeably restored back to its original configuration as a weight-driven hooded wall clock by replacing the later spring barrel and fusee with line-barrel and greatwheel to the correct specification. Details such as the distinctive back-pinned baluster pillars and narrow plates firmly plant the mechanism in the 'Edward East' school. Furthermore, direct comparison with a another almost identical movement by John Hilderson discussed in Weston, Anthony A REASSESSMENT OF THE CLOCKS OF JOHN HILDERSON AND OTHER MEMBERS OF THE EAST SCHOOL published in Antiquarian Horology (Vol 25, June 2000 pages 407-32), presents a strong case for attribution of the present movement to John Hilderson. Despite recent restoration to the lower part of the train and addition of the signature to the backplate the present movement is a fine survivor retaining its original verge pendulum escapement made no later than seven years after its invention and introduction to London by the Fromanteel Family. In