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A Unique Twin Fusee English Carriage Clock by James Moore French

About the Item

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, who was a watch and clockmaker based at 15 Sweetings Alley, just off Cornhill on the eastern side of the Royal Exchange, in the City of London. In 1810 French was admitted to the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers, by which time he appears to have taken over Moore’s business and premises, commencing trading as James Moore French of Sweetings Alley. Certainly, we know that he was trading from 15 Sweetings Alley from 1808 until about 1838. A London trade directory dated 1829 has a listing for J. M. Moore advertising as a chronometer maker at 14 and 15 East side of Royal Exchange (i.e., Sweetings Alley). By 1839 he had moved to 18 Cornhill and is also recorded at 86 Cornhill, during 1839-40, and from 1841 up until his death in 1842 at 80 Cornhill. It seems that in 1825, and for a short time, he was in partnership with Mr. Mitchell at 5 Clerkenwell Close, when they traded under the name of Mitchell & French. On other occasions, he was referred to under the name of Santiago James Moore French or simply Santiago Moore French, particularly when trading clocks with Spain. During the 1820s, James Moore French diversified into the manufacture of marine chronometers, at which he excelled, winning various prizes from the Board of Longitude. For instance, he submitted chronometers to the trials at the Royal Observatory Greenwich between 1822 and 1825, winning two Admiralty prizes in 1825, while George Cruikshank’s portrait engraving of him, showing him proudly standing beside one of his prize chronometers, (published in 1827; of which there is an example in the British Museum, London), is titled below The Royal Exchange Triple Prize Chronometer. Furthermore, his chronometer no 4214 was used on one of Charles Darwin’s voyages on HMS Beagle (Darwin being the famous author of On the Origin of Species). For a period, James Moore French lived in Islington and then later at Perry Hill House, near Lewisham, a beautiful late eighteenth century mansion, set in its own parkland. By the time of the 1841 census, he was living in Stockwell Place with his wife Elizabeth and a number of their children. They had at least six offspring of whom John and William followed their father’s profession and who, according to his will, were left his business after his death. James Moore French died in late January 1842, and was buried on 3rd February 1842, in Norwood Cemetery, south London. Even though his will stated that he was to leave the business to his sons William and John, it appears that it was continued by his widow and the Spanish-born clockmaker Jose Rodriguez Losada, who had previously worked for French and later married his widow. Under Losada, the firm continued to produce many fine clocks and chronometers selling, in 1864, thirty-eight examples to the Spanish government after successfully competing in trials. During this period the shop in Cornhill (called The City Observatory) was equipped with a large time ball which received signals from the Electric Telegraph Company to enable the public to check their watches. A picture of French’s shop and time ball appears in Vaudrey Mercer’s biography of the renowned clockmaker Edward John Dent and his successors.

Creator:
Santiago James Moore French (Clockmaker)
Dimensions:
Height: 9.06 in (23 cm)Width: 7.49 in (19 cm)Depth: 4.14 in (10.5 cm)
Style:
Rococo Revival (In the Style Of)
Materials and Techniques:
Brass,Bronze,Glass,Steel,Cast
Place of Origin:
England
Period:
19th Century
Date of Manufacture:
Circa 1840
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use.
Seller Location:
Amersham, GB
Reference Number:
Seller: 3061stDibs: LU9135240632272

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