Bracket basket top made by Joshua Wilson, c. 1700
- Height:
- 42cm handle up
- Maker:
- Joshua Wilson
- Price:
- on request
LATE 17TH CENTURY ENGLISH SPRING CLOCK signed Joshua Wilson London
A superb late 17th/early 18th century English eight-day spring-driven table clock signed Joshua Wilson London, dating to the period around 1700.
The elegantly proportioned ebony-veneered basket top case has cast brass ornaments to the door and rectangular windows to the sides so that the lovely movement is almost entirely visible. The case rests on four firegilt brass bun feet.
The fine 7½ inch square brass dial with matted centre and ringed winding holes has an applied silvered chapter ring, a date aperture above the VI, a false pendulum aperture under the XII and gilded brass winged cherub-head spandrels in the corners. The chapter ring is engraved with a narrow outer minute ring within which are Arabic five-minute numerals and 7½-minute markers, a central ring of Roman hours I-XII and half-hour markers and an inner ring divided into quarter hours. The time is indicated by an elegant pair of finely pierced blued steel hands. The chapter ring is signed by the maker in the following manner: Joshua Wilson London.
The striking eight-day twin fusee brass movement has verge escapement with a short knife-suspended pendulum. The striking, which is regulated by an internal rack, indicates the hours fully on a bell. The backplate is profusely engraved in period style around a typical signature cartouche with the maker’s name: Joshua Wilson Londini. The movement has its original pull-quarter repeat on a nest of three bells differing in pitch.
The maker Joshua Wilson (1675-1714) was apprenticed in 1688 to William Fuller. He was established in Lombard Street and later in Clements Lane. He became a member of the Clockmakers’ Company and was one of the small number of makers of the early period, along with Tompion and Quare, who numbered their clocks. Lantern, bracket and longcase clocks by his hands are known. Examples of his work are included in the Science Museum and the Wetherfield Collection.
Literature: B. Loomes, The Clockmakers of Great Britain 1286-1700, Ashbourne, 2014, p.529.
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