Longcase clock with triangular pediment, the case veneered with flame-figured mahogany on a carcase of oak, with simple mouldings; the dial of brass with a silvered chapter ring, engraved with the makers' names.

Case:
Mahogany veneer on oak carcass. Interior of trunk employing glue block construction, exterior with chamfered, fluted and wooden strung corners to front. Rectangular trunk door with moulded border. Concave moulding below hood. Sliding hood with similar chamfering as trunk to front, pedimented top, square hinged door with moulded border and rectangular glazed side panels. Plain frieze. Rectangular base with moulded border on double plinth. Inside trunk top, the very insubstantial chops reinforced with additional wood pieces. Opposite these on outside of chops are short runners to locate hood. Cut outs for hinges on inside of trunk door are larger than existing hinges and unused holes are visible.

Dial:
Brass, 12 inches square. Centre matted. Three plain winding holes, below central, pinned to dial plate is a silvered brass oval plaque engraved Benj: Gray /Just: Vulliamy / London. Urn and two eagle spandrels each located by a single screw. Pinned to the dial plate is the silvered brass chapter ring with an engraved minute band, Arabic minute numerals at intervals of five and Roman hour numerals. Pinned to the dial plate below "XII" is the subsidiary seconds ring of silvered brass with engraved seconds band and Arabic seconds numerals at intervals of five; its diameter is such that lower portion is partially cut away to clear central hole for hands; the 30 is much reduced in size in comparison with the other seconds numerals. Four dial feet attached to movement front plate by pinning.
Hands:

Pierced steel hour and minute. Seconds hand absent.

Movement:
Brass and steel, weight driven, quarter chiming, hour striking of 8-day duration with recoil escapement, pendulum regulated. Four pillars, parallel in section with a concave portion at both ends, each riveted to the backplate, pinned to the front. Quarter chiming on eight bells, hour striking on a single bell, both controlled by racks and snails, end of hour rack bent through 90 degrees forming locking surface for gathering pallet. Brass train wheels with four semicircular crossings, cannon and minute wheels with three-spoked crossings, latter located on front plate by a cock. Wheels on going and striking trains significantly thinner than those of chiming train. Where visible, chiming and striking great wheels, and striking warning wheel with scribed lines; roots of some wheel teeth flanked by short marks. Generally, such markings not obvious on chiming wheelwork. Double profile wheel collets of differing shape on striking and chiming trains: striking with domed part against wheel, abutting a short cylindrical portion along arbor on all except warning; chiming with two cylindrical sections, the larger adjacent to the wheel, the smaller portion along arbor. Going train wheels riveted to pinion heads - no collets. Going and striking train pinion heads with detailed differences to those of chiming train. Steel recoil pallets having short vertical stalk to anchor span 9½ teeth of escape wheel; mounted on pallet arbor by brass collet. Steel crutch of oval section. Hammer stop screwed to the inside bacplate above hammer arbor. Chiming greatwheel click is of the type separate from its screw; going and striking clicks of one-piece variety with integral thread. Chiming hammers are discs. Substantial backcock occupies half width of backplate.

Description and notes by Francis Brodie, c. 2008

Bequeathed by Reverend E G Winstanley

Bequeathed by the Reverend E G Winstanley (RP 138/1946)

Maker's details:
Benjamin Gray, born 1676, but early years and training do not seem to have been recorded, indeed nothing known for 40 years from 1676. Not a member of the Clockmakers Company, working in the City of Westminster, the City of London having no jurisdiction over Westminster, nor the right to search premises there. The first record of Gray is in 1716, taking on as apprentice Thomas Richard Wacklin, when Gray was at St Martin’s in the Fields. Believed that in 1727, Gray relocated to Pall Mall. Around 1743, formed partnership with François Justin Vulliamy. In 1738 was at St James’s Street West at Ye Sun Dyall in Thatched House Court (Jagger, C., Royal Clocks: The British Monarchy and its Timekeepers 1300-1900, London, 1983). 30 March 1742 was made Watchmaker in ordinary to King George II. 1752 moved to 78 Pall Mall, which was later changed to 68. Gray was perhaps more noted for his watches, specialising in repeating work, and repairing for other makers. Once F.J. Vulliamy joined him in partnership, the greater part of the output was clocks. The partnership usually signed Benj Gray:Just Vulliamy (Smith, R., Personal Communication). Gray died 1764; his name was noted for the quality of his products, if not his output (Jagger, C., Royal Clocks: The British Monarchy and its Timekeepers 1300-1900, London, 1983).

Gray seems to have made the fist English pedometer c.1750 (Roberts, D.H., British Longcase Clocks, Westchester PA, c.1990).

François Justin Vulliamy was born 1712 in the pays de Vaud, Switzerland (Jagger, C., Royal Clocks: The British Monarchy and its Timekeepers 1300-1900, London, 1983). Probably came to England in the mid-1730s, established by 1739. Married Benjamin Gray’s daughter in 1741. Note: The Royal Warrant was given to Gray and there is no evidence that Vulliamy received it after Gray’s death. Before the death of Gray, it would seem that Vulliamy had taken over much of the work, since many clocks from Pall Mall were signed Justin Vulliamy, or Just Vulliamy for some time. By the time F.J.Vulliamy died in 1797, his son Benjamin had taken over most of the responsibility for the running (Smith, R., Personal Communication).

Remarks:
Towards the end of the eighteenth century, the square dial mounted in an architectural, or pedimented top case appeared, being a revival of a style last seen one hundred years earlier, albeit somewhat larger. Typically, the name Vulliamy is associated with this style, such clocks frequently incorporating a high quality movement with a dial made from a single sheet of brass, engraved and silvered. W.19-1946 is unusual on two counts, firstly having a composite brass dial and secondly having a veneered case built up using glue blocks.

The three-train type of movement is not usually associated with architecturally-cased Vulliamys. However Robinson and Roberts both illustrate an anonymous chiming longcase movement with some features similar to W.19-1946, including the shape of the pillars and the general quality (Robinson, T.R., The Longcase Clock, Woodbridge, 1995; Ullyett, K., In Quest of Clocks, London, c.1950). A date of c.1780 is given to this illustrated example, whilst Robinson comments that the movement shows work that could be that of Benjamin Vulliamy (Robinson, T.R., The Longcase Clock, Woodbridge, 1995).

Turning to the stored clocks under study, in both W.19-1946 (three-train Gray and Vulliamy) and W65-1929 (two-trainer also by G&V), there are comparable details in the movements, such as the turned over ends to the hour racks, the substantial backcock and the pallet frame design.

The shape of the pillars in the three-train W.19-1946 is more usually associated with the nineteenth century, for example as found in regulators by William Hardy; Rose illustrates similar pillars from a dial clock dated c.1870 (Law, R.J., Horology Under the Hammer, Antiquarian Horology, Vol.17, No.3, Spring 1988, pp274-281). Even if no doubts exist over the pillars, their style and date would more likely be associated with a clock having a dial made from a single sheet of brass, rather than the composite one seen here.

Within a movement, differences in the style and mounting of wheel work are likely indicators of alteration. The fine wheels mounted with dome-shaped double profiled collets as seen in the striking train would not be out of place in mid-eighteenth century work; comparable details in the chiming train are typical of nineteenth century work. If the clock did start out with three trains, the chiming train could have been restored, or perhaps improved in the last hundred years or so with the possible intention of chiming on a greater number of bells. Alternatively, it is possible that W.19-1946 started life as a two-train movement and was converted. This is described by Edwards: “I have seen a good many instances of the conversion; most have been effected by re-setting the old trains within the new plates, and adding a chiming train. It is easy to recognise such work as conversion. The new plates are usually held together by modern cylindrical pillars, lacking any decorative features and sometimes securing the plates by screws rather than pins. Moreover, it is common practice to situate the fly for the new train outside the backplate, with its rear pivot in a bracket screwed thereto, thus obtaining greater space for larger vanes. An entirely new dialplate is frequently provided to line up the key holes. Old fittings are then transferred to the new plate” (Millburn, J.R., The Fleet Street Addresses of Graham and His Successors, Antiquarian Horology, Vol.8, No.3, June 1973, pp299-301). The problem with this scenario is that the dialplate of W.19-1946 certainly looks old, apparently being made of cast brass of uneven thickness, and there appears to be no obvious evidence that the winding holes have been moved; it is always possible that an existing three-train dial plate was utilised and ‘improved’ by the addition of a Gray and Vulliamy nameplate from elsewhere.

Doubt exists over the authenticity of the clock case when some of the internal details are studied. For example, the chops at the top of the trunk, on which the seatboard rests are very slender, their original proportions seemly too frail to support the considerable weight of movement with three gear trains, composite dial, pendulum and three weights, the chiming one in particular usually being substantial. It is interesting that the chops have been augmented with additional blocks.

One detail of the case of W.19-1946 accords with observations made by Smith on standard Vulliamy practice (although an exception does exist): moulding found on the glazed hood door only seems to occur on those cases with the chamfered fluted corners on both trunk and hood (Loomes, B., Lancashire Clocks and Clockmakers, Newton Abbots, 1975).

To sum up, W.19-1946 would appear to be an ambiguous clock and it is difficult to make definite conclusions about it. It would appear to be an elaborated specimen perhaps worked on in the later nineteenth or earlier twentieth centuries presumably to enhance its value and saleability in the eyes of an inexperienced collector. What is odd is the presence of apparently genuine Gray and Vulliamy features, that the dial appears sound and that details on the case correspond with Vulliamy practices.

Description and notes by Francis Brodie, c. 2008

Gray, of Pall Mall, was clock-maker to George II. Vulliamy emigrated from Switzerland and settled in London early in the 18th century, entering into partnership with Gray. He married Gray's daughter and carried on the business after his death. The family of Vulliamy held the office of clockmaker to the reigning sovereign until the death of Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy in 1854.

The case has a plain pedimented hood and the door flanked by chamfered corners with columnar fluting. The brass dial has openwork vase designs in the spandrels. There is a standard clock of closely similar design at Windsor Castle.

W.19:2-1946