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John Ellicott, London SOLD

SOLD

A fine and rare miniature brass-bound ebonised table timepiece with pull quarter repeating and alarm. Circa 1745

Case

The ebonised case with small foliate-cast handle over a brass-bound inverted bell top, the sides with arched glazed panels framed in brass, as are both doors, on a brass-bound base on cast block feet.

Dial

The 3.5 inch arched brass dial with Roman alarm-setting dial in the arch framed by rare spandrels featuring Roman helmets signed John Ellicott London. Silvered Roman and Arabic chapter ring with minute track and chamfered quarter hour track around the matted centre. Blued steel hands.

Movement

The eight day single fusee chain movement with five knopped pillars, silent verge escapement, repeating the hours on a single bell and hammer, followed by the quarters on a rack of three bells and hammers, the alarm sounded via a double-headed hammer mounted within the larger hour bell. The rococo and floral engraved backplate signed John Ellicott London in a central cartouche.

Height 11.5 inches (29 cm)

John Ellicott was born in 1706. He was one of the outstanding clockmakers of the 18th century, producing a large number of high quality clocks for the home market and export, his work was particularly valued by the Spanish Royal family. He was clockmaker to King George III, a position which paid £150 per annum. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society on the 26th of October 1738 and published articles on clocks and an equation of time table in the Philosophical Transactions for the Society. He supplied portable regulators to astronomers notably; Nevil Maskelyne, Charles Mason and James Cook for the recording of the transit of Venus. Ellicott was a keen astronomer and observed the transit of Venus in 1761 from an observatory built in his home in Hackney. He worked from St Swithins Alley, Royal Exchange, London. He was thus capable of making the highest grade precision timekeepers, the most elaborate 'fancy' clocks with finely cast and chased silver mounts, but also the beautifully proportioned and eminently usable clocks such as the current clock.

POA