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A
GEORGIAN OAK LONGCASE
by William Gill - Maidstone
An imposing oak case, the break arch locking trunk door
has a lenticle
glass and moulded edging. The oak plinth stands on a
double oak skirting.
The break arch hood has turned and grooved pillars with
brass pillar
caps and quarter pillars at the back. There are
inspection windows at the sides and the glazed door has
a security bolt. The pagoda top has three brass ball and
spire finials. The superb 12” break arch dial has a
silvered chapter ring with Roman hour numerals and
quarter hour gradations on the inner ring with Fleur de
Lys half hour markers. The outer ring has Arabic five
minute markers. There is an engraved wheat- ear
decoration round the dial edge and the matt centre has a
silvered seconds dial with a star centre, the calendar
aperture has a wheat- ear surround and silvered date
ring. The arch has a domed silvered plaque engraved with
the makers name Willm. Gill - Maidstone, the outer edge
engraved with triangular decoration in red and black.
There are Dolphin spandrels in the arch and the four
corner spandrels are C&W no.21 introduced in 1720. The
blue steel hands are fretted and pierced. The 8 day
movement has 5 turned and ringed pillars, anchor
escapement and rack strike sounding the hours on an alto
bell. There are some very unusual features to the strike
mechanism which has a gravity rack without a rack spring
and the gathering pallet has no tail; the positive stop
is achieved by a stop arm connected through the plates
and locking with a pin on the pallet wheel. The pendulum
has a brass covered bob which is engraved with a star
motif. William Gill is listed by Brian Loomes working in
Maidstone from circa 1737 – 1770. He was an innovative
maker as shown by his very efficient design of the
forward strike mechanism of this clock.
His movements could also be used with a repeat pull
mechanism for the strike and for this reason the weight
on the strike side does not fall as far as the going
train on clocks such as this where the owner did not
require a repeat pull.
Stock No: CA 831
Price: £3950 |
