Baddely, Albrighton

SOLD

Fine George III ebonised quarter repeating bracket clock with rarely seen white enamel dials and its original bracket. The elegant break arch brass dial with two white enamel subsidiary dials to the arch, regulation dial calibrated 0-60 on the right with strike/silent dial on the left, separated by pierced gilded spandrels, a false pendulum aperture above used to start the clock without the need to turn it around to gain access from the back. White enamel chapter with Roman numerals signed Baddely Albrighton with pierced gilded spandrels to the corners. The double fusee movement has thick plates, five large baluster pillars and a brass rod pendulum suspended from a pivoted rise and fall arm with shaped cocks mounted on the backplate. Striking the hours on a bell with pull quarter repeating mechanism on six further bells. The plain backplate with a hinged pendulum holdfast. The ebonised break arch case has three raised pads with convex mouldings and brass carrying handle, glazed side panels reveal the movement.

Date c 1785

Height 15 ins (37 cm)

Height on bracket 24 ins (61 cm)

White enamel dials were reserved for the highest quality clocks due to their high cost. This clock displays influence of bracket clocks made by Thomas Mudge and William Dutton at the end of the 18th century. It is unusual for a clock of this quality to be signed by a maker outside London. Looking at the Baddeley family reveals them to be exceptional. Phineas Baddeley is recorded as apprenticed in July 1652 and admitted to the Clockmakers Company in 1661, at 21 years of age. He subsequently worked in Tong, Shropshire. The maker of this clock John Baddeley of Albrighton made a clock for the church in Tong. He also turned his attention to barometers and optics inventing a new type of refraction telescope. On his death in 1804 he was recorded as Gent in the Parish Register and commemorated by an unusual cast iron tomb in Albrighton churchyard. A relative, also called John Baddeley, was apprenticed to his father in 1857 as a die sinker in Hackney, London. This John Baddeley later became Lord Mayor of London and resided at Mansion House.