An exceptionally fine engraved gilt brass English giant carriage clock with running seconds indication and fully relief-engraved case. Together with two travel cases.
James McCabe, Royal Exchange, London, No.2671
The case engraved allover in deep relief with exuberant foliate scrolls and flowerheads surmounted by a folding handle with ribbed centre section held between curved uprights on engraved bases over a shaped cornice framing the bevelled glass inspection panel (with repeat button passing through a brass ferrule in the glass), the substantial bevelled glass side panels set between engraved uprights to a stepped base, solid rear door engraved allover with further scrolls and flowers and set with a slide for fast/slow regulation (with engraved scale and central fleur de lyse), slide for strike/silent, and apertures for hand-setting and winding with engraved direction arrows. Engraved with a family badge to the front of the base depicting a double headed eagle and the motto AQUILOE COLUMBAS NON GENERA

The 3.5 inch rectangular dial signed between XI and I and numbered between V and VII on the Roman chapter ring with subsidiary seconds dial intersecting the XII numeral, blued steel quatrefoil hands reading against a scroll-engraved centre, twelve of the scrolls flowing outwards from the centre to represent the half-hour markers between the numerals, all framed by a dotted minute band, electroformed scrollwork and an angled gilt sight ring behind a heavy glass.

The impressive twin chain fusee movement with substantial plates secured to the base with L-shaped brackets and united by five turned pillars, the going train with Harrison's maintaining power to a large shaped gilt platform with heavy cut and compensated bimetallic balance over an underslung English lever escapement; the strike train sounding and repeating on a circular-section blued steel coiled gong. Ticking and striking. Together with a French-style leather covered, velvet lined travel case with lift up front, and an associated, slightly larger, brass-bound mahogany travel box with padded, felt-lined interior.




25cms (10ins) high. (3)
Footnotes:
Provenance:
This clock has been in the vendors family since before the Second World War. It could have been purchased in the secondary market in the early years of the century by the vendor's grandfather Colonel Adrian Gordon Paterson, D.S.O. with bar, M.C. (1888-1940). Another possibility is that it was part of his wife's family collection - he married Sybil Irene Webbe in 1919. Sybil's father was the cricketer Alexander Josiah Webbe (1855-1941) who studied at Harrow and Trinity College Oxford where he captained the University side. While still at Oxford, Webbe famously shared the opening stand with W.G. Grace at Lords, making 65 runs. He also played a Test match for England, and after he retired, he became secretary of Middlesex from 1900 to 1922 and President of Middlesex from 1923 to 1936. Colonel Paterson and Josiah Webbe were both men of huge energy with full careers and such a clock would undoubtedly have appealed to both.

Colonel Paterson and his wife Sybil had a daughter Camilla, and in 1951 Camilla married the vendor's father, Thomas Odling of Paxford House near Chipping Camden in Gloucestershire.



Looking further back, the engraved badge may offer an answer to the question of the original owner of the clock. The motto for some reason, is presented in reverse, and should read NON GENERANT AQUILΠCOLUMBAS instead of AQUILΠCOLUMBAS NON GENERANT (eagles do not beget doves). The corrected motto leads uniquely to two possible families, both with connections to the island of Jersey: Rodney (Baron) of Somerset and the Royal Navy; and Lempriere, that in its various forms includes Lempreur of Jersey and Normandy, a family of great antiquity in France.

The double headed eagle, displayed, is an uncommon crest in English heraldry but is more common in Europe. Although the heraldry of the family of baron Rodney includes an eagle displayed in the main shield and an eagle rising in the crest, they do not appear to have ever used an eagle with two heads. However the Lempriere family, who are mainly identified by the variant Lempreur, do use the double headed eagle as part of the main shield, in particular in heraldry that is recorded in France.

This slight discrepancy over the order of the motto and the eagle being double headed may indicate that it was created by an engraver unaware of the family's complete arms, or they more likely combined essential features to create what they considered to be a more artistically pleasing crest and motto? That the Lempriere and Rodney families could have been acquainted professionally in Jersey makes it possible that the badge we now see reflects the armorials of both families and may have been a gift from one to the other?





A similar clock, numbered 3121 was sold in these rooms on 13 December 2011 Lot 86. Other examples are illustrated and discussed in Allix & Bonnert, 'Carriage clocks, Their History and Development', Antiques Collectors Club, 1981, plate IX/64 and Roberts, 'Carriage and other Travelling Clocks', Schiffer, 1993 Fig 20-11 a,b,c and 20-16 a,b,c,d. Roberts is particularly effusive regarding this series of clocks, commenting that they

.....'represent McCabe at his very best and are undoubtedly amongst the finest carriage clocks ever produced in this country. In each case the treatment of the engraving, whilst different, is always to the highest standards and the rear view of this clock (McCabe number 3180) shows that every bit as much attention has been paid to the back as the front.'