A GEORGE III THIRTY-HOUR LONGCASE CLOCKTHE MOVEMENT AND DIAL...

Estimate

£200 - £300

A GEORGE III THIRTY-HOUR LONGCASE CLOCKTHE MOVEMENT AND DIAL BY EDWARD BILBIE, CHEW STOKE, CIRCA 1770, THE CASE CIRCA 1800The posted countwheel bell striking movement with column-turned corner uprights and anchor escapement regulated by seconds pendulum, the 12 inch square brass dial with rose and thistle decorated calendar aperture beneath applied bell motif to the matted centre within applied Roman numeral silvered chapter ring with fleur-de-lys half hour markers, Arabic five minutes beyond the outer minute track and signed E. Bilbie, Chewstoke to lower margin, with scroll pierced steel hands and the angles applied with fine female mask centred leafy scroll cast spandrels, in a swan neck pedimented case with hinged glazed dial aperture flanked by fixed free-standing columns and the sides with shaped vertical bargeboards applied to the rear edges, the trunk with concave throat moulding over rectangular caddy moulded door flanked by canted angles, on plinth base with conforming top moulding over panel-outlined front and moulded skirt incorporating shaped apron to lower edge (presently detached).208cm (82ins) high, 48cm (19ins) wide, 24cm (9.5ins) deep.Edward Bilbie I is recorded in Moore, A.J THE CLOCKMAKERS OF SOMERSET 1650-1900 (Appendix vii) as born 1666 and probably working from circa 1695 as he is thought to have learnt the clockmaking trade from Edward Webb who died in 1694; by 1698 he had certainly become established in Chew Stoke as a bellfounder. Edward Bilbie had two sons, Edward II (born 1694) who assisted his father but unfortunately died within six months of his father in 1725, and Thomas (born 1702) who inherited his father's business in 1725 and worked until 1768. Edward II had a son who he also named Edward (III - born circa 1715), who is thought to have been brought up by his uncle Thomas, and worked alongside him until around 1768.The present clock would have been made by Edward Bilbie III; the applied bell motif to the dial centre is an interesting feature which may be a nod towards the family's bell-founding heritage.