A RARE AND UNUSUAL GEORGE I EBONY STRIKING BRACKET CLOCK WITH REVOLVING SPHERICAL MOON PHASE AND AGE OF THE MOON INDICATION

The case with a caddy top and triple knopped handle, above an arched glazed door with fret spandrels, an arched glass panel to each door, on a stepped base and glazed back door, with 7in arched brass dial, finely cast spandrels, with silvered and blue painted revolving moon sphere in the arch with two narrow rings, the outer marked I to XII twice for the months, the inner ring 1 - 29 1/2 for the age of the moon, above silvered chapter ring, enclosing a matted centre with false pendulum aperture, pierced steel blued hands, with shaped rectangular signature panel above the calendar aperture above the VI, with two subsidiaries for pendulum regulation and strike silent, the twin train gut fusee movement with signed and engraved backplate and verge escapement

46cm high

Joseph Williamson (d. 1725) was apprenticed in Ireland before moving to London.  Working in Clements Lane he was a member of the Clockmakers Company from 1686.  Appointed Watchmaker to the King of Spain.   In a letter dated 1719, to the Royal Society, he claimed the invention of an equation of time mechanism and confirmed he supplied a year going clock with equation of time, amongst others, to Quare who resold it to the King of Spain.  Quare was a fellow Quaker.

A bracket clock by Williamson with revolving spherical terrestrial sphere and year calendar and quarter repeat was sold, The Teddy Hall Collection, Christie's London,11 July 2003, lot 153.

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:

Richard Garnier & Leo Hollis, Innovation & Collaboration, Santon, 2018, p. 380.

Antiquarian Horology, December 1955, Hans von Bertele, The Equation Clock Inventions of Joseph Williamson, p. 123 -127.

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, volume 30, issue 363 -  Joseph Williamson. 1719 I.  A letter of Mr. Joseph Williamson Watchmaker, to the Publisher, wherein he asserts his right to the curious and useful invention of making clocks to keep time with the Suns apparent motionPhil. Trans. R. Soc.301080–1082

http://doi.org/10.1098/rstl.1717.0069

Condition report

The clock is in good unrestored original condition.  The right hand edge of the pediment moulding is loose, with some veneer loose.  The bell has a crack and its arbour has been repaired with silver solder.  The movement is secured from the base by a steel screw as well as a brass angled bracket to the right and left back of the movement.  These appear not to be original and the corresponding wooden sides of the case have a filled hole on the same plane to each side.