Dreweatts Donnington Priory Salerooms
Lot 61
A rare George I walnut musical eight-day longcase clock James Green, Althorpe, circa 1720 The five substantial finned pillar triple train movement with inside countwheel hour striking on a bell and playing a choice of four tunes on eight bells three times a day, the 12 inch brass break-arch dial with subsidiary seconds dial, ringed winding holes and calendar aperture within foliate engraved decoration to the matted centre within an applied silvered Roman numeral chapter ring with stylised fluer-de-lys half hour markers and Arabic five minutes to outer track, the angles applied with bird and urn cast spandrels, the arch with dolphin mounts flanking circular silvered boss signed IAMES GREEN, Althorp near Gainsbro`, Lincolnshire around a central reserve engraved with a crest of a lions head pierced with an arrow with the tip protruding from the mouth, the case with moulded cornice and applied `pyramid` motifs to frieze above dial and integral pilasters to hood door, the trunk with rectangular bookmatched veneered door, on crossbanded plinth base with shallow skirt, 219cm (7ft 2.5ins) high. THIS DESCRIPTION TO BE READ IN CONJUNCTION WITH ‘IMPORTANT NOTES REGARDING THE CATALOGUING OF CLOCKS’ PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE OR AVAILABLE FROM THE SALEROOM ON REQUEST. James Green was is recorded by W.N. Terry (in a list compiled for an exhibition held at Northampton Museum in 1966) as working from St. Giles Street, Althorpe, Lincolnshire 1712-36. The engraved crest within the signature boss to the arch is almost certainly for PEAK of Lincolnshire and of Achurch, near Oundle, Northants as it closely follows the description `a gold lion`s head, torn off at the neck, pierced through the side of the head with an arrow, the point emerging from the mouth`. This crest was used by Sir William Peak, Lord Mayor of London in 1668, its presence suggests that the current lot may have been commissioned by one of his descendants for a Lincolnshire residence.
