Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood (Honiton)
Lot 418
James Webb, Frome, an Adam & Eve automata longcase clock having an eight-day duration movement striking the hours on a bell, the twelve-inch break-arch dial having black Roman numerals, Arabic five minute markings, a subsidiary seconds dial, date aperture, blued steel hands, painted `strawberry` corner spandrels and having an Adam & Eve automata to the arch, the falseplate stamped with the name of the dialmaker `Wilson, Birmingham`, the oak case having a raised panel to the base, fluted columns with cast capitals to the flat-topped hood and shell inlay to the base & door with further inlay to the corners, height 206cm. (movement a/f) * James Webb is recorded as working in Frome from circa 1760 until 1814 working with his son Thomas from 1806 as Webb & Son. * James Wilson was a pioneer of the painted `enamel` dial having started his manufactory in Birmingham in circa 1772 in partnership with Thomas Osborne. An advert from Aris`s Birmingham Gazette in 1772 describes the partners making `White Clock Dials in Imitation of Enamel, in a Manner entirely new`, being the new style of painted dial that was to become so popular. On the dissolution of the partnership in September 1777 James Wilson set up on his own account at 11, Great Charles Street before enlarging into number 12. James Wilson died in 1809, aged 54, and his business effectively went with him after a relative of his wife, Nathaniel Porter, tried unsuccessfully to run it but ended up going bankrupt in 1811.
