Large ebonised bracket clock

Description — British Museum

Large ebonised bracket clock; month chiming; quarter-strike with verge escapement and pull repeat; silvered-metal chapter-ring; day and month calendars; 'strike-silent' and rise and fall dials with calendar aperture; enclosed in ebonised case with moulded borders and domed hood; surmounted by ormolu flaming finials and scroll and foliage carrying handle. Train-counts: Going. Gt wheel 72 2nd wheel 64/12 Centre wheel 84/8 Contrate wheel 72/6 Crown wheel 25/6 Motion work. Canon pinion 36 Minute wheel 36 Minute pinion 6 Hour wheel 72 A pinion of 16 on hour wheel drives wheel of 32 which drives another of 32, then a third of 32 which carries a pin to index the 7-tooth star wheel one tooth per day. Striking. Gt wheel 72 2nd wheel 78/18 Pin wheel 72/8 4th wheel 60/8 Warning wheel 48/6 Fly 6 Quarter striking. Gt wheel 72 2nd wheel 80/12 Barrel 72/10 Pin wheel 60/6 Warning 60/6 Fly 10 Repeat train. Gt wheel 72 2nd wheel 48/6 Pin wheel 54/6 Fly 6.

Curator's comments — British Museum

Text from 'Clocks', by David Thompson, London, 2004, p. 98. Claude Duchesne Quarter-chiming table clock London, 1704 Height 51 cm, width 35.5 cm, depth 25 cm The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes by Louis XIV in 1685 caused a massive influx of Huguenot emigrants from France into England. As a religiously tolerant country, with pre-existing Huguenot communities, England was a natural sanctuary for those fleeing persecution in France. It is estimated that by 1700 the Huguenot population in the London area alone numbered between 20,000 and 25,000. Claude Duchesne was one of those who left Paris to start a new life in London. He was made a Free Brother in the Clockmakers' Company in 1693 and lived in Long Acre in the parish of St Anne's, in Soho. There is also a recorded clock which is signed giving the address as 'Dean Street Soho'. Duchesne is thought to have lived until about 1730 and is known to have had at least one son, Antoine, who became a Freeman in the Goldsmiths' Company. This austere ebony-veneered clock is not typical of the Huguenot style of 1700, when many clocks had either silver mounts or pierced gilt-metal single and double basket tops. Here the treatment is one of restraint, in a style which remained popular amongst English customers until well into the eighteenth century, with only the handle, four flame finials at the top and two vertical gilt-wood strips down the front and back doors. The dial is less restrained, having a dial-plate finely engraved with a border of wheat ears enclosing arabesque foliate scrolls around the outside of the chapter ring. There are four subsidiary dials and an aperture. Top left is a 'rise-and-fall' dial calibrated 5-60 for regulating the clock. In the upper right corner is a strike/silent dial. Bottom left is a month dial with the months named and depicted by their ruling planetary sign and with the number of days in the month. The bottom right-hand dial is engraved with the days of the week. In the middle, above the chapter ring, is a small rectangular aperture through which can be seen the date. Below this is an aperture revealing a small mock-pendulum, used to start the clock without the need to turn it round to gain access from the back. Finally, at the very bottom is a lever which activates shutters that cover the winding squares. The clock is signed on the dial 'Claudius Du Chesne Londini Fecit' and inside the back plate is a faint, scratched inscription, 'Le 13 May 1704 Claudius Duchesne Londini Fecit'. The clock chimes the quarters on ten bells, has a pull-quarter repeat which sounds on four more bells and strikes the hours on a single low-pitched bell. The one-month, spring-driven movement has fusees and a verge escapement controlled by a pendulum. The movement back plate is even more sumptuously engraved than the dial, with copious foliate scrolling and two winged trumpeters flanking a central cartouche in which there is a depiction of 'David with the Head of Goliath'. Ilbert Collection.