A lovely chamfered top mahogany bracket clock, the case has brass trim to the canted corners and to the top and base. To the sides are fishscale frets with gilded floral handles above, with the chamfered top surmounted by a gilded acorn finial sitting atop a small well executed plinth an all standing on typical ball feet. The round, silvered eight-inch convex dial has black Roman numerals, blued steel ‘moon’ hands and is signed by the maker ‘T. Rich, Cheltenham'. The eight-day, five pillar, double fusee movement has an anchor escapement and strikes the hours and half-hours on a bell. The backplate is fully engraved and has a repeat of the maker's name and town, with the pendulum bob also engraved.
Thomas Rich is recorded as working from before 1788, when it was recorded in the Bristol Gazette that a 'spring quarter clock' signed by him was stolen on the 7th of February. He was at 168, High Street, Cheltenham from before 1800 and then 6, Winchcombe Street from 1820. He was the son of Peter & Lois Rich of Upton, Oxfordshire and married Mary Coates of Cheltenham on the 25th of May, 1792 at Tewkesbury with whom he had three children.
Height: 19½ inches, including finial
Price: £5,250.00