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31257C.BR
GEORGE WILKINS, FRITH STREET, LONDON. A PARTICULARLY SMALL EBONISED AND BRASS MOUNTED REGENCY BRACKET CLOCK WITH A UNIQUE MUSICAL MOVEMENT. CIRCA 1820.

A very small and attractive ebonised musical bracket clock. The case, with profuse brass inlay of geometric design and incorporating linen swags, has fishscale frets to the side. The shallow breakarch shaped top culminating in a raised plinth and a brass pineapple finial. The case stands on brass ball feet.

The front door opens to gain access to the enamel dial for winding and hand setting and also reveals a small silvered dial for tune selection and the winding square for the musical movement. The movement of this clock is its most unusual feature and is unlike any that we have seen previously. It was obviously done as a special commission but utilising a standard case and dial as these are typical of the period.

The timepiece movement is mounted above the musical movement and has a dead beat escapement with the escape wheel mounted on the backplate. The pendulum backcock is secured to a further backplate behind the movement suspending a brass rod pendulum.

The musical movement mounted below the timepiece is set off from the rear via an unusual weighted linkage. It plays one of three Scottish tunes, Bonnie Lad, Highland Laddie and Bluebells of Scotland on eight bells and with eight hammers. Both the going movement and the musical movement are powered by single chain fusees. The layout of the musical movement itself is highly unusual.

Height: 13.5"

Price band: C

George Wilkins is noted as working in Frith Street, London between 1810 - 1825. One of his business cards/advertising leaflet is held at the British Museum.

This clock is reputed to have been a gift from the Duke of Windsor to his friend Graham Dilley, Esq Vicar of Subenham, Leicestershire, known as the "Sporting Parson". This would obviously have been some one hundred years after its original manufacture and there is no written record of whether this is true, but the clock was purchased in 1961 from an antique dealer in Leicestershire by Mr. Albert Odmark, the well known American collector, who noted this attribution.