A GEORGE III MAHOGANY BRACKET CLOCK WITH SULLY’S ESCAPEMENT

The bell top pediment with four urn finials, above the door with a pair of caryatids and arched glazed panel with two pierced spandrels, the sides each with a brass carrying handle and glazed panel, the 8in white re-painted dial inscribed Wm Webster Whitechapel, with strike/silent in the arch, pierced steel hands, the twin train gut fusée movement with five pillars, foliate-engraved backplate, rack strike on a bell and Sully's escapement

48cm high

Henry Sullly (d. 1729) was apprenticed to Charles Gretton and later worked in Paris and was the first clockmaker there to develop a chronometer, from which Harrison soon followed on.  Sully worked in collaboration with Julien Leroy, who was horologer du Roi.

Here the escapement is a form of the Debaufre escapement which Sully further developed a variation on around 1721.  More often found in watches, its unusual to see a Sully escapement in clocks.

COMPARTIVE LITERAURE:
Paul Chamberlain, It's about Time, London, 1978, p.123.

CONDITION REPORT
The case is in good condition.  It has been repolished.  There is a later fillet on the top of the ogee, perhaps where a handle placement was?  The back door glass is cracked.  The dial has been re-painted.  The movement looks to have been recently cleaned and is running.  It cannot be determined if the escapement is original or replaces a verge escapement, as would be expected of this period.  No vacant holes are visible except one on the lower left of the backplate where one hooks a verge pendulum for transit.  One winding key.