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

Hammer

£13,000

A WILLIAM III WALNUT AND FLORAL MARQUETRY EIGHT-DAY LONGCASE CLOCK WITH TEN-INCH DIALJAMES MARKWICK, LONDON, CIRCA 1695The six finned and latched pillar inside countwheel bell striking movement with slender tall plates measuring 7.375 by 5 inches and anchor escapement regulated by seconds pendulum, the 10 inch square gilt brass dial with subsidiary seconds dial, ringed winding holes and scroll border engraved calendar aperture to the finely matted centre, within applied silvered Roman numeral chapter ring with stylised sword hilt half hour markers, small Arabic five minutes beyond the outer minute track and signed Jacobus Markwick, Londini to lower margin, with fine sculpted scroll-pierced steel hands and applied gilt winged cherub mask and scroll cast spandrels to angels incorporating leafy trail engraved infill to margins between, the case with ogee moulded cornice and fretwork frieze over floral marquetry trail decorated hinged glazed dial surround applied with Solomonic twist-turned three quarter columns to front angles, the sides with rectangular glazed apertures and conforming quarter columns set against bargeboards at the rear, the trunk with convex throat moulding over 42 inch rectangular door centred with a circular brass-framed lenticle and with three shaped marquetry panels decorated with bird inhabited floral sprays and scrolling foliage into an ebonised ground within applied half-round crossgrain edge mouldings, the sides veneered with two line-outline panels, the base with stepped ogee top mouldings over conforming rectangular marquetry panel within crossbanded surround, on bun feet.197cm (77.5ins) high, 46cm (18ins) wide, 27cm (10.5ins) deep.James Markwick senior is recorded in Loomes, Brian Clockmakers of Britain 1286-1700 as apprenticed in 1656 to Edmund Gilpin (through Richard Taylor); he initially worked at Croydon before returning to London where he gained his freedom of the Clockmakers' Company in 1666. In 1673 he took-over the former business of Samuel Betts at behind the Royal Exchange. Markwick had a turbulent relationship with the Clockmakers' Company - in 1676 he was fined for abuse of the Master at the Steward's feast and was often reprimanded for not attending court. James Markwick junior was born in Croydon in 1662 and was apprenticed to his father gaining his freedom (by patrimony) in 1692. He initially went into partnership with his father before gaining outright control of the business on the latter's retirement to Pevensey in Sussex in around 1700 (where he subsequently died in 1716). In around 1710-15 James Markwick junior went into partnership with Robert Markham which lasted until the former's death in 1730. The business was subsequently continued by Markham and his successors and specialised in producing clocks and watches for export to the Middle East.