A WILLIAM III WALNUT AND FLORAL MARQUETRY EIGHT-DAY LONGCASE...

Estimate

£4,000 - £6,000

A WILLIAM III WALNUT AND FLORAL MARQUETRY EIGHT-DAY LONGCASE CLOCK RICHARD FENNELL, KENSINGTON, CIRCA 1695The four finned and latched pillar inside countwheel bell striking movement with plates measuring 6.75 by 5 inches and anchor escapement regulated by seconds pendulum, the 11 inch square brass dial with subsidiary seconds dial, ringed winding holes and calendar aperture to the concentric 'button' decorated matted centre, within applied silvered Roman numeral chapter ring with stylised sword-hilt half hour markers, Arabic five minutes beyond the outer minute track and signed Rich. Fennell, Kensington to lower margin, with fine scroll-pierced sculpted blued steel hands and applied winged cherub mask and scroll cast spandrels to angles, in a case with ogee moulded cornice and plain frieze over floral marquetry trail decorated hinged glazed dial surround applied with three quarter columns to angles, the sides with rectangular glazed apertures and conforming quarter columns set against bargeboards at the rear, the trunk with floral bloom decorated convex throat moulding over 42 inch rectangular door centred with a circular lenticle and with three shaped marquetry panels decorated with bird inhabited floral sprays and scrolling foliage into an ebonised ground, with half-round edge mouldings, the sides veneered with twin panels within crossbanded borders, the base with stepped ogee top mouldings over conforming rectangular marquetry panel within crossbanded surround, on a moulded skirt base.210cm (82.5ins) high, 47.cm (18.5ins) wide, 25.5cm (10ins) deep.Provenance:Private collection. Inherited by Mr. & Mrs. Curling Hunter, 9, Westbourne Terrace, London, and thence by descent to the vendor.Richard Fennell is recorded in Loomes, Brian The Early Clockmakers of Britain 1286-1700 as born in about 1656 and began his apprenticeship with Matthew Crockford in 1669. He then transferred to Thomas Bagley and finally gained his freedom of the Clockmakers' Company after ten years, in 1679. He is believed to have married Ann Hedderil at St. Duke's Place in 1693 but did not sign the Clockmakers 'oath of allegiance' in 1697. He worked in the outskirts of the city in Kensington and is known for longcase, lantern and table clocks including a small series of miniature brass table timepieces - an example of which was exhibited in the 'Horological Masterworks' Exhibition held at The Museum of the History of Science, Oxford, 29 March - 22 June 2003 (item number 48). Clockmakers Company records suggest that he was in arrears for his quarterage in 1705 and is believed to have worked in Kensington until at least 1715.