Object Description
No:11036
George III Mahogany longcase Clock with 2 finials and central gilt eagle with 8 day, hour striking and Lunar Calendar movement with pull repeat by Robert Bolton of Wigan, the arched dial with a silvered plaque above the lunar calendar inscribed “He appointed the moon for seasons” and two silvered scrolls beneath inscribed “Time is….Valuable”, silvered chapter rings, the minutes engraved in Arabic numerals, the hours in Roman numerals and the inner band with the normal calendar in Arabic Numerals with a gilt hand. The subsidiary seconds dial below the 12 also has the original hand and the dial centre is silvered with engraved Rococo decoration which ties in with the Rococo gilt corner spandrels.
Circa 1790
Price: £15,000-00p.
Height: 95.5”h Width: 21”w Depth:10.5”
Provenance: Harry Furness,
Growing up in a working-class family in Manchester, Harry Furness joined the army in 1939 at the age of 16. Having always been captivated by the stories of First World War snipers, he immediately volunteered for sniper training when the army began to recruit soldiers in 1941. He did exceptionally well, qualifying as a marksman whilst a pre-war army cadet and was quickly promoted to lance corporal.
Just prior to D-Day, he was promoted to corporal in the Green Howards Regiment and landed at Gold Beach on 6th June 1944. Together, he and his comrades began a hard fight across North-West Europe, gradually moving through Northern France, Belgium, Holland and eventually into Germany as they pushed the Germans back towards the Rhine.
The manifold dangers and occasional humour of Harry Furness’s experiences of war come across in a very matter-of-fact but compelling way in the dozens of previously unpublished letters, personal interviews and images that make up Martin Pegler’s fascinating, moving biography of Furness and his extraordinary life. “ The Solitary War of a Sniper” The Authorised Biography of Britain’s Most Successful World War II Sniper
Notes: The history of this clock is interesting and typically somewhat romantic. During the 18th century Wigan continued to be an important market town and its population grew rapidly.(6000 in ca. 1700 to 32,000 by 1850) Clock makers made clocks in Wigan and whitesmiths made pewter goods. Then in 1779 the Leeds and Liverpool Canal was completed as far as Wigan and from the end of the 18th century coal mining around Wigan vastly increased and at one point there were over 1000 pits within five miles of the town centre. By 1790 Wigan also had its own iron works and during the last quarter of the century the cotton weaving industry boomed as well.
In 1764 a waterworks was created in Wigan and in 1798 a dispensary opened where the poor could obtain free medicines. Like many other towns in the north of England Wigan was transformed by the industrial revolution from the end of the 18th century onwards.
Wigan had always been a clockmaking centre and all the wealth and industry rushing into this area helped to sustain this as well.
There were three outstanding clockmakers in Wigan during the second half of the 18th. century, Peter Fearnley, Robert Bolton and William Barker. There was very keen competition between these three, two of them, Fearnley and Barker made a wide range of clocks to suit various market prices but they were also anxious to demonstrate that they were able to produce timepieces to match any others in the land so each of them made a “masterpiece” to prove it.
Bolton on the other hand was already wealthy from making fine guns and as he also owned the main brass foundry in Wigan he made the brass dials for most of the clockmakers in that region. He was also Mayor of Wigan. The example he made for his own home has survived intact. William Barker’s “Astronomical Masterpiece” made during the 1780’s was highly acclaimed and was sold in London during the 1970’s. When Barker’s clock appeared it prompted Peter Fearnley to make his own “Masterpiece Clock” which he then placed in his own home for showing to the gentry and selected clients in order to obtain commissions.
Lit: Watchmakers & Clockmakers of the World Vol 2 which has Robert Bolton, Wigan 1791-1848 .
Grandfather Clocks and their cases , Brian Loomes, Plates 269, 270 &285.
English Domestic Clocks, Cescinsky & Webster, Plates 261 & 263
Lancashire Clocks and Clockmakers, Brian Loomes, “ Bolton, Robert, Wigan , Clockmaker, There by 1797. Also a gunsmith and later listed as such. Wife, Alice, died 1811 aged 44, Son, William, born 1783, dies 1791.
See W R Harvey & Co (Antiques) Ltd. Exhibition Catalogue. Summer 2009 “Masterful Marquetry and Majestic Mahogany”, Chapter 2. Fearnley’s Wigan Masterpiece. Pages 10-13.
The Boltons, Metalworkers of Wigan, Jamie Ferguson.
The Liverpool Masonic Rebellion and the Grand Lodge of Wigan part III, Dr, David Harrison
The Clockmakers and Watchmakers of Wigan, Arthur J Hawkes