Bracket clock by John Purden, London, c. 1725

Dealer description — Howard Walwyn

A fine and rare George I period ebonised and gilt-brass moulded three train quarter chiming moon phase bracket clock by this London maker. The inverted bell top case is veneered in ebonised fruitwood and crisply mounted in gilt brass, with a pierced foliate frieze, bold fillet mouldings and a hinged carrying handle between four brass urn finials. The front has an arched glazed aperture and fine pierced quadrant frets backed in green silk, while the sides are also set with conforming gilt sound frets. The upper friezes are engraved with scallop-centred foliate scrolls and the larger break-arch panels below depict paired eagles and baskets of flowers. The rear door is framed with a small arched glazed aperture and matching frets. The brass-bound skirt base stands on four brass moulded feet. A later bespoke wall bracket with moulded shelf and shaped ogee support accompanies the clock. The 4 ⅝-inch silver-mounted gilt-brass break-arch dial has a finely matted centre with turned ferrules to the winding squares and a silvered dummy pendulum aperture that is signed by the maker Jn’o Purden, London . The silvered Roman chapter ring has fleur-de-lys half-hour and Arabic five-minute markers. The blued steel scroll-pierced steel hands appear to be original. There are four rosette-centred subsidiary dials to each corner for regulation , Strike/Silent, day of the week and date , set within an applied cast silver leafy scroll infill. In the arch, a rolling moon phase disc is engraved with lunar indications and numerals, framed by applied silver lunettes and a laurel border. The intricate eight-pillar triple-fusee movement has a restored pivoted verge escapement regulated by a small lenticular pendulum bob. The quarters are sounded on a graduated nest of six bells and the hours on a separate larger bell, with pull quarter-repeat. The front plate is engraved ‘ IP ’ for John Purden in the right hand corner, a signature seen on a number of his clocks. The superbly engraved backplate depicts a figure of Victory above a martial trophy within symmetrical foliate strapwork, flanked by winged, trumpeting cherubs and enclosed by a herringbone border. Date : circa 1725 Height : 15 in (38 cm) excluding handle Width : 8 in (20.5 cm) Depth : 6 ¾ in (17 cm) On bracket Height : 22 ½ in (57 cm) Width : 9 in (23 cm) Depth : 7 ½ in (19 cm) *John Purden is first recorded as a clockmaker circa 1725 and is known to have worked on Dean Street, Soho, from about the 1750s, with an earlier surname reference at St Martin’s Court (1743, from a watch hallmark). Surviving records are thin and there is no clear evidence of Clockmakers’ Company freedom, which accords with his likely role as a specialist movement -maker working for retailers and for the Huguenot circle active in Soho. His signed work is rare and of conspicuously high Huguenot quality: compact triple-fusee table clocks and miniatures with densely packed trains, quarter-repeat on nests of bells, multiple subsidiary dials including rise/fall, strike/silent, calendar and moonphase. Purden’s authorship is often confirmed by the I.P . engraving on the front plate (the contemporary ‘I’ for ‘J’), while some dials are fully signed Jn’o Purden, London . Scholarship also records a collaboration with the Rotterdam mechanician Steven Hoogendijk, reinforcing his reputation as a sought-after supplier of small complex movements. References: Sunny Dzik, Beneath the Dial , p. 452 Brian Loomes, Watchmakers and Clockmakers of the World , p. 632 HW6633