Click here to enlarge picture

31112C.L
JAMES FORSYTH, LONDON. A BEAUTIFULLY CASED MAHOGANY MUSICAL LONGCASE CLOCK. CIRCA 1790.

A beautifully elegant London mahogany pagoda topped longcase clock. The case of excellent proportions has a well shaped pagoda top with a wooden sound fret to the front and two ball and spire finials on reeded columns at the side. The hood then continues with reeded and brass inlaid columns to the side. The trunk of the clock has canted reeded columns. These are capped with brass caps and have brass inlaid stringing to the bottoms. The door has a strong edge moulding and cross banded edging and finely chosen flame veneer in the centre.

The base of the clock is particularly fine. It has a cross banded scalloped cornered panel with sand shaded shell motifs in the corners. There is an unusually designed sand shaded oval motif in the centre of the panel. The flame mahogany is again of the finest quality and the light cross banding and shaded decoration are superb.

The brass silvered arched dial has the seven tunes engraved in the top of the arch and there is a chime/not chime dial and a strike/silent dial. The centre of the arch has a fleur de leys engraved design. The engraved chapter ring has Roman numerals and Arabic repeat numerals and there is a seconds dial below 12 o’clock. The dial is signed for the maker ‘James Forsyth, London’ in flowing script. There are foliate and floral engraved spandrels in the four corners.