Daniel Quare (Tompion), London No.47
Circa 1708
An exceedingly rare Queen Anne miniature, red turtleshell and silver mounted, striking and pull-quarter repeating spring clock, together with its original conforming turtleshell wall bracket
Movement attributed to Thomas Tompion (1639-1713)
Height
19½ inches (493 mm) including the wall bracket
Case
The red turtleshell veneered dome top case surmounted by a Quare-pattern solid silver baluster handle, the front door with a typical laid-on silver breakarch moulding flanked by turtleshell pierced frets, the sides with D-ended top frets above further rectangular fretted apertures, all sitting on moulded silver block feet and supported on the original conforming wall-fixed bracket, with a red turtleshell veneered inverted bell shaped base, forward sliding to reveal a key compartment.
Dial
The 4¾ by 6¼ inch (122 mm by 159 mm) gilt-brass breakarch dial, subsidiary rings for pendulum regulation and strike/silent, flanking a large central date ring in the arch, decorated between by Graver 195, with cornucopia and scrolls. The silvered chapter ring with Roman hours and sword-hilt half-hour marks, inside Arabic minutes and lozenge half-quarters. The typical blued-steel hands well-pierced and shaped. The D-ended mock pendulum in the finely matted centre and signed Dan Quare London in an oval reserve, the bottom corners with Quare’s own Indian-mask and foliate spandrels (masks the ‘right’ way up). The dial held to the movement by four pinned dial feet.
Duration
8 days
Movement
The small but substantial movement, of Tompion’s miniature pattern, with seven fully-latched baluster pillars, twin fusees and spring barrels; the going train with pivoted verge escapement and lenticular pendulum mounted to the pinion adjusted suspension bar above; the strike train governed by an internal rack and striking on the large bell, and pull-quarter repeating on Tompion’s fail-safe system on the smaller bell, via double-cocked interconnecting blued-steel levers. The backplate, attributed to Graver 195, decorated with elaborate scrolls and foliage, signed Dan Quare London in a cartouche incorporating an Indian-mask, and further engraved 47 below, all framed by a wheatear border.
Escapement
Pivoted verge with spring-suspended lenticular pendulum
Strike Type
Rack hour striking with twin-lever pull-quarter repeat
Provenance
By 1910 with J. W. Abbott Esq. and thence by descent to;
Mrs June Abbott, 1995 with the restorer William Galbraith and sold privately to;
John C Taylor Collection, inventory no.10
Exhibited 1970s-1980s, London, on loan to the Victoria & Albert museum;
2003, Oxford & Liverpool, Horological Masterworks, exhibit no.53;
2018, London, Innovation & Collaboration, exhibit no.117.
Literature
Britten’s, Old Clocks Watches &Their Makers, 3rd ed., 1911, (illus.) p.296 & 297;
Horological Masterworks, 2003, no.53, (illus.) p.238-241;
Evans, Carter & Wright, Thomas Tompion, 300 Years, 2013, (illus.) p.372-373;
Garnier & Carter, Golden Age of English Horology, 2015, ‘The Quare Tompion group of table clocks’, (illus.) p.286-295;
Garnier & Hollis, Innovation & Collaboration, 2018, (illus.) p378-9
Comments
This clock is one of a small number whose movements were supplied to Quare with Tompion’s repeating system; of the eight now recorded, only Quare nos. 47 and 62 share enough similarities to Tompion’s standard batch movements to make an attribution; both are miniatures and exquisitely finished to a standard much higher than Quare’s normal production.
Historically, the introduction of the breakarch dial is often arbitrarily given as c.1710, however we know that Tompion applied a breakarch dial in c.1702-4, to The Spanish Tompion no.381. While that clock was a royal commission, full Grande Sonnerie striking and repeating, in a spectacular exclusive new design of case, it would certainly not have gone unnoticed in the competitive horological world of that time.
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