Beschreibung:

A rare George II ebonised pine cased weight-driven alarm wall timepiece, Joseph Kirk, Nottingham, circa 1730 The four-wheel going train with anchor escapement incorporating offset pallets and regulated by 25 inch pendulum set between rectangular plates united by three steel square section pillars alongside the verge alarm mechanism sounding via a vertically pivoted hammer on a bell mounted above, the 6 inch square brass dial with alarm setting disc and single iron hand within applied Roman numeral chapter ring with minute ring to inner track and diamond lozenge half hour markers, the case with 10.25 inch square caddy moulded ebonised pine dial surround fronting a bracket with top panel between the backboard and the dial surround over removable side panels and curved bracket supports fitted to the backboard beneath incorporating inverted onion-shaped lower margin, the case 35.5cm (14ins) high. Joseph Kirk is recorded in Loomes, Brian Clockmakers of Britain 1286-1700 as Quaker born in the parish of Hardstoft, Derbyshire in 1673; by 1708 he was in Skegby, Nottinghamshire where he took in an apprentice, Robert Willis, in 1723. By 1731 Kirk had moved to Nottingham where he took in a further apprentice, Patrick Cock; he was succeeded by his daughter, Anne, who married Samuel Piggott in 1738/9 and lived until 1786. The current lot is similar in feel to the only two known examples by James Woolley of Codnor which are illustrated in Darken, Jeff (editor) TIME & PLACE, English Country Clocks 1600-1840 on pages 180-81 and 238 respectively.