An oak and mahogany longcase clock with the eight-day movement striking the hours on a bell. The 12½ inch painted arch dial has well decorated corner spandrels of floral design on a yellow ground with the arch painted with a lovely scene showing a derelict church beside a lake with a bowed gilt floral arch above. To the centre is a seconds dial and date aperture and the signature of the maker 'William Law, Kirkcudbright'. With black Roman hour numerals and decorative engraved brass hands. The oak case is of a good colour with a mahogany panel above the shaped trunk door and has fluted quarter columns to the trunk which stand on mahogany blocks. With fluted pillars to the hood and a swan neck pediment with brass patrae and mahogany panels. Interestingly both cast weights have railway labels attached which read 'London, Midland & Scottish Railway Company, Kircudbright' which would mean that at some point the clock was sent by train to another destination.
William Law was one of many clockmakers in the Law family and is known to have started a clockmaking business circa 1820 in the High Street, Kirkcudbright. He was made a Burgess of the City on the 28th of November 1821 and he made a clock for the town of Dumfries in 1824 and another for his home town in 1837, the latter in association with his brother James Law. It is recorded that he served on the Reform Committee in 1831. His father was the clockmaker Robert Law and his mother Isabella Black. William married Janet McMurray (born 1791, died 1863) and they had a son, also William, who took over his father's business following his death on the 11th of May 1845.
Height: 7ft 2 inches
Price: £4,450.00