Christopher Gould, London c. 1697 A fine ‘special’ Type 2 ‘Mulberry’ full Grande Sonnerie longcase

Christopher Gould, London
Circa 1697
An exceedingly fine and important William III full Grande Sonnerie ‘mulberry’ veneered longcase clock. The ‘special’ Type 2 case attributed to Tompion’s casemaker
Height
8 foot 4½ inches (2544 mm)
Case
The case in ‘mulberry’ veneers (burr field maple, treated with nitric acid and lamp-black) inlaid with cross-banded Princes wood, framed by ebony and boxwood lines onto an oak carcass, and of Tompion’s ‘special’ Type 2 format, with a dial door and no mask, and transitional forward sliding hood. The four-sided caddy top, with ‘Regal’ flat front-and-back bell-shaped upstand, surmounted by a pedestal with brass urn and flame finial and flanked by two matching pedestals and finials. The cross-grain cornice moulding above a frieze with fine pierced wood sound frets, supported by brass-capped Doric three-quarter columns flanking the hood door, with matching quarter columns to the rear hood uprights. The hood resting on concave throat mouldings, above the rectangular trunk door with spectacular veneers, Princes wood cross-banding and cross-grain half-round frame. The trunk door surround and sides all with matching inlays, the cross-grain cyma-block base moulding, crowning the similarly cross-banded and veneered plinth, raised on a matching single skirting.
Dial The 12 inch (305 mm) lacquer-gilt brass dial with double-wheatear engraved border signed centrally within, Christop=Gould Londini Fecit, along the lower edge, and strike control, S/N, also within at XII. The silvered chapter ring with inner quarter divisions, Roman hours and fleur-de-lys half-hour marks, the outer division ring with every Arabic minute shown outside. The matted centre with seconds ring below XII, engraved and chamfered calendar aperture above VI, and ring-turned winding holes. Elaborate winged cherub and foliate spandrels, very finely pierced and shaped fancy blued steel hands, the hour with a pierced boss centre, and four pinned dial feet.
Duration
8 days
Movement
The massive rectangular movement with nine pinned finned baluster pillars, going train with anchor escapement, backplate pallet cut-out, and one second pendulum with lenticular brass bob; the quarter train governed by a rack and snail and striking on six graduated quarter bells mounted on a horizontal bell-stand with shaped quarter hammer and spring assembly, both bridging the plates in Tompion’s format, the rack and snail hour train striking on the larger bell mounted above. The whole strike silenced via a lever through the dial at XII. Three brass cased weights, the quarter weight later extended.
Escapement
Anchor with one second pendulum
Strike Type
Rack and snail full Grande Sonnerie
Provenance
Private collection UK;
Anthony Woodburn, 2001, sold for £185,000;
The John C Taylor Collection, inventory no.73
Exhibited 2003, Oxford & Liverpool, Horological Masterworks, exhibit no.45;
2004, Holland, Paleis Het Loo, Huygens’ Legacy, exhibit no.85
Literature
Dawson, Drover & Parkes, Early English Clocks, 1982, p.214, 215 & 288, pl.287, 288, 398 & 399 (illus.);
Antiquarian Horology, Autumn 1989, Winterton, ‘English Grande Sonnerie Clocks’, p.309;
Horological Masterworks, 2003, (illus.) p.200-203;
Huygens’ Legacy, 2004, (illus.) p.248-9
This highly complex and magnificently cased clock by Christopher Gould is exemplary; the full Grande Sonnerie movement is his masterstroke, while the case is about as fine and impressive as one can find at this period. The high cost and inherent risk of making such a magnificent clock on spec, means it could only have been borne as a specially ordered commission and, very clearly, no expense was spared by Gould’s patron, so much so, that in the Huygens’ Legacy catalogue of 2003, this clock is described as having a case surpassing Tompion.
Adam Bowett explains the process of achieving a ‘mulberry’ finish in Furniture History, vol. XXXIX, 2003, ‘Labeled Furniture from the White Swan Workshop (1711-1735)’: ‘This technique involved the cutting of the roots of the field maple tree into veneers, laying the veneers down onto the carcase and then pouring sulphuric acid onto the veneers to open up the grain. With the grain open a mixture of soot and oil was rubbed into the grain to obtain the desired marbleised effect. The veneer was then sealed with a polish and waxed. It was generally thought that the desire for a marbleised effect arose as a result of people seeing, on the Grand Tour, the fashion of the Italian cabinet makers of making furniture out of marble.’
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