A Fine 18th Century Mahogany Eight Day Table Clock with Trip Quarter Repeat

An eighteenth-century English spring-driven mahogany table clock, signed on both the dial and the backplate S. Cleghorn LONDON, made circa 1770-75. The case is of classical shape for the period, with a bell top, arched doors to the front and rear, and pierced wooden sound frets to the corners. There are arched viewing windows to the sides. The case is embellished with pineapple finials on the corners and is surmounted by a shaped carrying handle, while the clock rests on moulded wooden feet.

The corners of the arched brass dial are embellished by rococo spandrels around a silvered brass Roman and Arabic chapter ring, with a matted centre, date aperture above the VI and a recessed silvered signature plaque below the XII. In the arch is a strike/silent lever.

The eight-day plated movement is driven by two spring barrels via gut fusees. It consists of a going train with verge escapement, rack hour striking on a bell sounding the hours of a bell. The last hour struck can be repeated at will by pulling a cord to the bottom of the clock. The backplate has a fine border engraving and the engraved signature.

The maker, Samuel Cleghorn, was active in the last quarter of the eighteenth and the early years of the nineteenth centuries. During part of his life as a clockmaker he was associated with William Pleace.

Literature
Brian Loomes, Watch and Clockmakers of the World, London, 2006, p. 158

£8,900