A WILLIAM AND MARY EBONISED BRACKET TIMEPIECE

The case mounted with giltmetal foliate panels, with domed top and foliate-cast scrolled handle, with four finials, the 6 3/4in. square brass dial with cast mask spandrels, signed silvered chapter ring, enclosing a matted centre with calendar aperture and harboured winding hole, the gut fusee movement with foliate engraved plates, verge escapement and formerly with pull-quarter repeat (now lacking) and now with one in passing strike

39cm high

Gabriel Smith is recorded as working in Cheshire.  Born in 1656, he died at Barthomley aged 87 in 1743.  He was at some point in Nantwich as occasionally his work is signed 'Namptwich'.  An interesting early maker.

The very unusual engraving to the backplate is discussed and illustrated in Sunny Dzik, Engraving on English Table Clocks, Art on a Canvas of Brass 1660-1800, Oxford, 2019, p. 324.

Here Smith screws his pillars into the backplate, a feature he is known for.  It demonstrated that, most likely, his work is completely by his own hand and did not rely on a movement bought in from London. 

Condition report: The case has been subject to restoration at some point.  The ebonised decoration appears to have been refreshed.  The back has evidence of former mounts.  Some damage to the mount at the base of the front door.  The glasses have a slight green tinge, perhaps replacements.  The dial fillet is replaced.  The case construction is not typical for a clock of this period.  The dome appears to be formed from one piece of wood and its underside roughly carved out to accommodate the handle fittings.  Other elements present that the case has similarities to continental work of that time?  Especially the base plate.  It may simply be that Smith was unconventional as evidenced by the fixing method of the pillars in the movement.  As stated the quarter wheel work is now lost as evidenced by spare holes in the plates.  The one in passing strike mechanism is of course a later variation.