Lewis Walduck
Cataloguer
Lot 47
A good second half of the 18th century Scottish ebonised table clock William Nicoll, Edinburgh
2 July 2025, 13:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £1,920 inc. premium
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A good second half of the 18th century Scottish ebonised table clock
William Nicoll, Edinburgh
The bell topped case surmounted by a brass carrying handle over a well moulded cornice, the front door with similar moulded decoration and pierced sound frets, shaped sides with inset observation windows, all on a moulded base raised on four block feet. The 6.5-inch arched brass dial with silvered Roman and Arabic chapter ring enclosing a matted centre with mock pendulum and calendar apertures, framed by four cast gilt-brass spandrels, set to the arch with subsidiary dials for strike/silent and rise-and-fall pendulum regulation, signed to an applied silvered plaque William Nicoll, Edinburgh. The substantial movement united by five knopped pillars with verge escapement and twin gut fusees, the going train with pivoted verge to a pendulum with engraved lenticular brass bob, the rack strike system acting on a bell. The finely engraved backplate with foliate scrollwork and four stalks, secured in the case by a pair of engraved brass brackets. Ticking and striking, and sold with two case keys and a winding key. 48cms (19.25ins) high.
The bell topped case surmounted by a brass carrying handle over a well moulded cornice, the front door with similar moulded decoration and pierced sound frets, shaped sides with inset observation windows, all on a moulded base raised on four block feet. The 6.5-inch arched brass dial with silvered Roman and Arabic chapter ring enclosing a matted centre with mock pendulum and calendar apertures, framed by four cast gilt-brass spandrels, set to the arch with subsidiary dials for strike/silent and rise-and-fall pendulum regulation, signed to an applied silvered plaque William Nicoll, Edinburgh. The substantial movement united by five knopped pillars with verge escapement and twin gut fusees, the going train with pivoted verge to a pendulum with engraved lenticular brass bob, the rack strike system acting on a bell. The finely engraved backplate with foliate scrollwork and four stalks, secured in the case by a pair of engraved brass brackets. Ticking and striking, and sold with two case keys and a winding key. 48cms (19.25ins) high.
Footnotes
William Nicoll was an 18th-century Scottish clockmaker active in Edinburgh. He began his horological training in 1740 as an apprentice to Patrick Gordon, a noted clockmaker of the period. In 1745, he married, and by 1748 he was operating independently from an address listed as Back of the Guard in Edinburgh, where he continued to work until around 1775.
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