The Pearson Tompion No 387, c. 1703 Important ‘special’ Type 2 walnut full Grande Sonnerie longcase

The Pearson Tompion
No.387, Circa 1703
A highly important Queen Anne ‘special’ Type 3 burr walnut three-train full Grande Sonnerie striking and trip-repeating longcase clock, by Thomas Tompion & Edward Banger, London
Height
8 foot 3½ inches (2527 mm)
Case
The ‘special’ commissioned Type 3 case (see notes following, and p.166‑8), veneered in burr walnut onto an oak carcass, of Tompion’s fully-developed Type 3 form with hood door, dial mask and forward sliding hood. The hood top restored above the dome, centred by a brass ball finial with pedestal flanked by shaped upstands, the original top freize above the cornice with an archetypal extra ‘step’ below, unique to Tompion’s ‘special’ Type 3 longcases, with pierced walnut sound frets to the front and sides. The lower frieze supported by typical brass-capped Doric columns flanking the hood door and with matching quarter-columns to the hood fillets at the rear. The hood supported by concave throat mouldings with internal roller-guides for the repeat cords, above the burr-walnut veneered rectangular trunk door with half-round frame mouldings, stamp-numbered 387, 25 and 26 on the upper leading edge, the concave base moulding above the partially restored, cross-banded and herringbone inlaid burr-veneered plinth, and raised on a later single walnut skirting. The backboard with original dust-excluding chamfered extensions, only apparently found on Tompion’s complicated ‘special’ clocks, to seal behind the hood.
Dial
The 11½ inch (290 mm) gilt-brass dial with silvered chapter ring typically engraved with Roman hours, sword-hilt half-hour marks and Arabic minutes with cross half-quarters outside the division ring. The blued steel hands finely pierced and shaped. The finely matted centre signed on a reserve Tho. Tompion Edw. Banger London, and subsequently but typically overlaid with an oval silvered plaque signed Tho: Tompion London, also with seconds ring, pin-hole calendar aperture and three shuttered winding holes, the maintaining-power lever slot to the edge of dial outside IX. The strike control lever outside III with an upgraded silvered plaque engraved N (no strike), 1 (for one bell quarter-strike) and S6 (for six bell quarter-strike). There is also strike-selection engraved on the dial plate, beneath the current plaque. The double-screwed gilt-brass Indian mask & scroll corner spandrels, with decoration between by Graver 195, except for the bottom edge that is further signed Tho: Tompion Londini Fecit. The whole dial attached to the movement by four latched dial feet. There is a differing, previous strike-selection notation engraved on the dial plate, beneath the added current plate
Duration
8 days
Movement
The highly complex and substantial full Grande Sonnerie movement with six latched baluster pillars; the going train with anchor escapement and bolt-and-shutter maintaining power, via the dial lever at IX; both the hour and quarter strike trains rack and snail governed, the hours striking on the large bell and the quarters on six graduated bells, with an option to reduce to a single bell via the silent/strike option lever through the dial at III, and repeating via a frontplate mounted, cock-guided, vertical pull-lever down to below the seatboard to attach, via trunk-mounted roller-guides, to the exit cords. Typically for all Tompion’s grande sonnierie movements by this time, punch-numbered 387 at the bottom centre of the backplate and further similarly numbered 387 at the bottom centre of the frontplate. The brass-rod pendulum with lenticular bob and calibrated rating nut, with three brass cased weights. The movement fixed in the usual manner with seatboard screws into the base pillars and a bracket to the backboard.
Escapement
Anchor with one second pendulum
Strike Type
Three-train full Grande Sonnerie with trip repeat
Provenance
Possibly ordered by George of Denmark on Queen Anne’s accession
By 19th century with William Pearson, the Station Master of New Street station, Birmingham (retired 1899), thence by family descent, until sold
Christie’s, 18th July 1979, lot 143
Private collection USA
1997 with Asprey’s at Grosvenor House Antiques Fair, and sold for £255,000
The John C Taylor Collection, inventory no.22
Exhibited 1997, Grosvenor House Antiques Fair, with Asprey
2003, Oxford & Liverpool, Masterworks, exhibit no.51
2004, Holland, Het Loo, Huygens’ Legacy, exhibit no.88
2018, London, Innovation & Collaboration, exhibit no.113
Literature
Antiquarian Horology, Autumn 1989, Winterton, ‘English Grande Sonnerie Clocks’, p.307
Horological Masterworks, 2003, (illus.) p.226-231
Huygens’ Legacy, 2004, (illus.) p.256-7
Evans, Tompion at the Dial and Three Crowns, 2006, listed
Evans, Carter & Wright, Thomas Tompion 300 Years, 2013, (illus.) p.494-5, and listed
Garnier & Carter, The Golden Age of English Horology, 2015, (illus.) p.66
Garnier & Hollis, Innovation & Collaboration, 2018, (illus.) p.366-369
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