Sellingantiques.co.uk Logo
 6,489 visitors today 0 antiques approved today, Sun 18 May

A Unique Twin Fusee English Carriage Clock By James Moore French

£15,525    $20,710    €18,453
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 chron...
Antique #SA1081118, shown on this page, originates from the victorian Era. For historical context, the timeline below highlights the period when it was made:
   The Victorian Era   
Famous inventions historic timeline graphic to help to give historical context to the date of this antique.
CONTACT DETAILS OF SELLER:
Chalfont Clocks
Buckinghamshire
United Kingdom
TELEPHONE SELLER
01494 763 793
EMAIL SELLER
EXTRA RESOURCES
HISTORIC TIMELINE OPTIONS
mgctlbxN$MZ mgctlbxV$5.3.7 mgctlbxL$C