Daniel Quare, London, Circa 1685 a marquetry month going longcase clock with pull quarter repeat C

#AntiqueClock"Daniel Quare, London | Circa 1685

An exceedingly fine and rare James II walnut veneered all-over panel marquetry month- going longcase clock with pull-quarter repeat.

Height: 6 feet 101⁄4 inches (2090 mm).

Case: The flat top rising hood with cross-grain walnut mouldings and floral and foliate scroll marquetry panels laid all-over the case sections, including the case sides. With pierced sound frets to the frieze, above brass-capped Solomonic columns and convex throat mouldings, the rectangular trunk door with a glazed lenticle, the matching marquetry panelled plinth raised on turned bun feet.

Dial: The 11 inch (279 mm) square gilt-brass dial signed Dan. Quare, London on the silvered chapter ring with typical half-hour marks, sculpted blued steel hands, the matted centre with typical ring-dot decoration to the centre and within the seconds ring and typically engraved calendar aperture and ring-turned winding holes. The upper spandrels cut to flank the silvered subsidiary dials for pendulum regulation and strike/silent.

Duration: One month.

Movement: The massive T-shaped plates with five archetypal Quare workshop ring-turned baluster pillars, the going train with anchor escapement, the strike train governed by rack and snail to the front plate, and striking on the large bell above, with typical Quare pull- quarter repeating mechanism sounding on four smaller bells, rack-and-pinion rise-and- fall regulation operated via a subsidiary ring on the dial to the brass-rod pendulum with calibrated rating nut.

Escapement: Anchor.

Strike Type: Rack hour striking with Quare’s own pull-quarter repeat.

Provenance:

• Anthony Woodburn, 2004, sold for £120,000.

Exhibited:

• 2018, Innovation & Collaboration, London, exhibit no.104.

Literature:

• Garnier & Hollis, Innovation & Collaboration, 2018, illustrated p.345.

Unusually this movement includes a pull-quarter repeating system with the quarters sounding on four bells and the hours on a single bell. It also includes rise-and-fall regulation and a strike/silent option, both operated through the dial. The strike/silent option, combined with quarter repeat, particularly lends credence to its possible original use as a bedroom clock.

The continuation of the marquetry down the sides of the case is a pointer to its quality. Accordingly, this clock is most likely to have been specially commissioned from Quare. The walnut and marquetry case has additional panels of marquetry to the sides of the hood, trunk and base; all-in-all an expensive, as well as highly unusual, additional feature. The movement and dial also confirm its commissioned status, while the dial matting has Quare’s signature ringed decoration, the subsidiaries are most unusual for a longcase, yet almost identical to those found on his finest contemporary table clocks. Meanwhile the movement, from pendulum regulation to Quare’s own rare repeat-work, simply echos this clock’s superiority over his standard productions.

There are only a small number of longcase clocks recorded by other makers that have a pull-quarter repeat feature, including three by Tompion, numbers 13, 64 and 251.

Although not seen, by repute a repeating longcase by another maker remains in its original location, together with a series of pulleys up to a bedside pull-repeat cord. "