A FINE AND RARE CHARLES II EBONISED THIRTY-HOUR LONGCASE CLO...

Estimate

£6,000 - £8,000

A FINE AND RARE CHARLES II EBONISED THIRTY-HOUR LONGCASE CLOCKCHARLES GRETTON, LONDON, CIRCA 1680The four finned pillar outside countwheel bell striking movement with tall plates measuring 7.375 by 5 inches and anchor escapement regulated by seconds pendulum, the 10 inch square brass dial finely engraved with a symmetrical arrangement of leafy tulip, anemone and narcissus blooms over a drapery lambrequin signed Charles Gretton in, Fleete Streete, London to centre, with fine sculpted pierced steel hand within applied silvered Roman numeral chapter ring with stylised fleur-de-lys half hour markers, the spandrel areas further engraved with opposing leafy anemone blooms within a scribed line outer border, in an ebonised pine case with rising hood surmounted by a scallop shell and leafy scroll carved swan neck crest, over ogee cornice and architectural lintel fronted with a foliate scroll pierced blind fret frieze, with fixed glazed dial aperture flanked by applied Solomonic twist three-quarter columns to front angles, the sides with rectangular windows and conforming quarter columns set against bargeboards at the rear, the trunk with convex throat moulding over 41 inch rectangular door centred with a glazed lenticle within half-round edge mouldings, on plinth base with stepped ogee top moulding and bun feet.213cm (84ins) high, 43cm (17ins) wide, 25.5cm (10ins) deep.Provenance:The property of a private collector.Charles Gretton is documented in Radage, Dennis; Warner, Meinen and Radage, Laila CHARLES GRETTON, THROUGH THE GOLDEN AGE as born in Clayplole, Lincolnshire in 1648. By 1662 he had moved to London entering into an eight-year apprenticeship under Humphrey Downing on the 30th June of that year (turned over from Lionell Wythe); Downing died in 1666 but it is thought that Gretton continued his apprenticeship under his widow, Cordelia, gaining his freedom of the Clockmakers Company in 1672 and se-up business in Fleet Street. In 1677 Charles Gretton married Mary Phillips and established himself at the sign of the 'The Ship' in Fleet Street (either number 174 or 175 next to Fetter Lane). Gretton was appointed an Assistant of the Clockmaker's Company in 1889 and then Warden in 1697; the same year he signed the 'oath of allegiance'. In 1700 Charles Gretton served as Master as well marrying his second wife Lucy Uffman (his first wife Mary died in 1694). In 1701 he put £50 forward to the Clockmakers' Company in order to establish a trust to assist the orphans of deceased members and was nominated to serve again as Master in 1705/06. Lucy, his second wife died before 1711 as this is the year that Charles Gretton married his third wife, Dorethea Wilson shortly after which he moved to his newly acquired second premises at two Chancery Lane. At this time his premises at 'The Ship', Fleet Street was passed onto the management of his nephew, Thomas Moore who paid taxes on the building until 1723. In 1716 Charles and Dorothea moved again to Chancery Lane where they remained until Dorothea's death in 1727. By this time Charles Gretton had retired from active clockmaking and went to go and live with his daughter, Ann, in Milk Street where he remained until his death in 1731.During his career Charles Gretton He took on many apprentices including Henry Sully (Freed April 1705) and Joseph Antram (Freed October 1706) both of whom went on to become famous clockmakers in their own right. By the time of his death and internment at St. Dunstan's in the West Gretton had become a wealthy and highly respected figure within the City of London as well as the clockmaking community. His Will mentions no less than nine properties as well as £1,300 deposited in the Bank of England contributing the £2,600 monetary component of his legacy. The engraved dial centre of the present clock can be compared to that of a key-wound thirty-hour longcase clock by Thomas Tompion illustrated in Robinson, Tom The Longcase Clock on page 62 (Figure 4/13). Another dial with closely comparable engraved decoration, this time for a posted thirty-hour movement by Andrew Prime, is illustrated in Dawson, P.G, Drover, C.B. and Parkes, D.W. Early English Clocks on page 224 (Plate 299). Indeed, the design and feel of the engraving also conforms to that seen on table clocks of the period as described by Sunny Dzik in ENGRAVING ON ENGLISH TABLE CLOCKS, Art on a Canvas of Brass 1660-1800 pages 67-99. Of particular interest are two backplates for clocks by Joseph Knibb illustrated on page 74 (Figure 6.9) which, as well as exhibiting closely related foliate decoration, are most likely signed by the same hand that engraved the name on the dial of the current lot.The case of the present lot is a notably rare survivor being of ebonised pine that has not succumbed to rot, notable worm infestation or other significantly detrimental ravages of age. Nor has it been subjected to 'enhancement' by veneering in walnut at a later date, a fate which many surviving ebonised cases have been subjected to. Indeed, the finish best displays the fine, pleasing proportions and detailing, which are essentially perfect for a case of this type.Although not recorded by Radage, Meinen and Radage, the present clock is a particularly early survivor of Gretton's work that can be placed amongst the first half dozen or so known examples by him; it is certainly his earliest surviving thirty-hour longcase clock.