Height

14 inches.

Case

The red stained turtle shell veneered case, constructed on an oak carcass with stained shell mouldings, the bell top with bold knopped handle. The moulded glazed door with pierced sound frets to the break arch and Tompion’s gilt brass scroll escutcheons. The break arch sides with glazed apertures and pierced sound frets above. The back door with moulded edge and break arch glazed frame and pierced sound frets, moulded base with simple block feet.

Dial

The 7¾ x 5¾ inch break arch, gilded brass dial with foliot and mask spandrels, lever at IX for strike/silent. The finely matted centre with chamfered engraved date square above VI, mock pendulum aperture below the oval cartouche signed Claude Viet London, with Arabic division ring marked 5-40 for rise and fall regulation. The silvered chapter ring has Roman hours with lozenge half-hour markers, Arabic five minutes division outside the minute ring. Finely pierced blued-steel hands while the dial-plate is held to the movement by four pinned dial feet.

Movement

The rectangular plates united by six ring-turned pillars pinned to the front plate, the two trains have spring barrels and fusees with steel lines. The going train has a pivoted verge with lenticular bob pendulum, and steel suspension, while the strike train, governed by a rack and snail, sounds the hours on a large bell. The quarter repeat sounding on a further six graduated bells, via a pull cord through the side of the case. The foliate engraved backplate signed to a central cartouche Claude Viet London, sprung pendulum lock below.

Provenance

Private collection UK.

Literature

R.J. Britten, Old Clocks and Watches (fifth edition), 1922, p.794

Dawson, Drover and Parkes, Early English Clocks, plate 681, pp. 461 & 467.

Percy Dawson, The Iden Collection, 1987, p. 46.

Notes

Claude Viet a Huguenot born in Orleans in France sought exile in London, fleeing persecution for his faith. Free of the Clockmaker’s Company in 1698. A maker of fine clocks and watches some of which he signed Watchmaker to her Majesty.

Stained turtle shell was considered high fashion of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The bright red shell with black figuring was a vibrant and most royal contrast to many clock cases of the period. Difficult to make and reassuringly expensive.