Santiago James Moore French Carriage Clocks and Travel Clocks

A one of a kind english twin fusee carriage clock by James Moore French. The eight day movement has a large English jewelled level escapement with compensated bimetallic balance. The movement is wound and set through a round glazed door at the back and can be regulated from the outside as the fast/slow arm extends through the back of the case with rack striking the hour and half hour on blued steel gong with trip repeat. The gilt dial is signed as is th back plate of the movement, the centre of the dial is engraved with foliate scroll work with a roman chapter and breguet style moon hands. The unusual case of case bronze in a rococo revival style is finely chased with fluted sides flanked by Cariatids with a swag of fruit and flowers strung between them, th handle is formed of two dolphins. James Moore French was born in 1781 in County Antrim, Ireland. He was the son of Dr Hugh French and Sarah (née Arundel) French who married his father in 1763 and died in 1783, two years after James’s birth. In 1784, the year after Sarah’s death, Dr Hugh French married a widow named Judith Woodward who was to raise the young James French as her own, alongside his own and his half siblings. As a young man, James French moved from Ireland to London, where he worked with a relative, Peter Moore...