John Bayley, London

Circa 1710

Sold

12 1/2 inches high 6 1/2 inches deep

A rare and unusual turtleshell and ebony striking table clock with quarter repeat. CASE The case is surmounted by a handsome gilt-brass foliate-tied handle above a ‘roofed’ sloping top, each side set with a foliate-pierced ebony sound fret. The sides of the case are glazed and have unusual ebony line-inlay. DIAL The 6 1/4 inch square dial is signed Jno Bayley London on the silvered chapter ring, the matted centre has both calendar and a mock pendulum apertures with a wheatear engraved border and there is a strike/silent lever above chapter XII. MOVEMENT The movement has twin fusees and a knife-edge verge escapement with a rack and snail strike. The hour strikes on a bell and the pull quarter repeat operates on a nest of six smaller bells. The backplate is beautifully engraved with foliage and signed in the centre John Bayley London within a foliate cartouche. Provenance: • Private collection, Kent Comparative literature: • P.G. Dawson, C.B. Drover & D.W. Parkes, Early English Clocks, 1964, figs. 683/4 Comments The arresting ebony and turtleshell-veneered case bears a close resemblance to the mouldings and in particular the rear door of a turtleshell-veneered clock by Jonathan Pullar illustrated in Early English Clocks, op cit. In case-design chronology, the unusual angled top fits within a small time-period just prior to the popularity of the metal basket top. John Bayley, London John Bayley was born circa 1678 and apprenticed from 1692 until 1699 to John Hunt, who was listed as a watchmaker. He was freed in July 1700 having first been transferred to William Bartram, probably because Hunt was going blind. Bayley had a prodigious number of apprentices; no fewer than seven passed through his workshops between 1701 and 1719. In spite of such an apparent workload very few clocks by Bayley have survived and only one watch is known with a gold case marked for 1712. In such cases it is more likely that Bayley was an ‘outworker’ supplying specialist work for other workshops.