Clocktime Quare's Year Going Boulle Longcase c1695, 03 the Case

Daniel Quare - Boulle longcase with year-going and striking movement.
Join Dr John C Taylor OBE from the Clocktime digital museum as he discusses the case of Quare’s Year Going Boulle Longcase, circa 1695.
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What a wonderful case and the case itself in style is very much a British styling with a flat top to the caddy but the detail and the construction of the case is very much continental German in style. The transoms across to join the side of the case together in the frame, normally they're just grooved and tongued to fasten them together, whereas in this clock they've got dovetails and when you knock a wedge in, it tightens the dovetail and pulls the boards together. So, it's a completely different construction and the backboard in this clock instead of being held together with blacksmith's clout nails, is pinned together with wooden dowels, which are then glued as well. So, it's a completely continental construction and the wonderful Boulle finish, one tends to associate with French King Louis XIV but this one is very much more Germanic in what's called the Princely Gothic German style. And the detail is wonderful with Father Time here with his scythe, bodies ready to be collected, two Satyrs here carrying the lenticle and on the bottom there's a beautiful picture of a Roman General, so, that it's a highly decorated, absolutely beautiful case. And imagine the skill in wrapping the Boulle around these columns, fitting in the concave junctions and it's a highly skilled, beautiful case. The detailing in this Boulle work is absolutely beautiful, even starting on the outside of the case, look at the width of the pewter work here. Just tiny, tiny slivers separated in the middle by black ebony lines, repeated again on the door here, just wonderful swirls. But then you get to some of the figures, you've got Chronos here with his scythe and he's waiting to collect the two bodies, which he just plonked over a log. So, here we've got the two Satyrs looking away nonchalantly while they balance the lenticle on the backs. Wonderful half man, half animal figures, all within the scroll work, all in the pewter, all in the design, completely integrated design and it then goes from this back into flowers and the swirls. A beautiful design picked out with the pewter, the brass and the tortoiseshell, the swirls and in the centre there is the Roman General. Imagine trying to make this wonderful detail here, packing your three different layers of the pewter, the brass and the tortoiseshell with your own piercing saw, which you just lovingly made and cutting it all out. It's certainly the most beautiful work but imagine having to make the tools to do it as well and then having finished, you can see the engraving which has been put onto the pewter and onto the brass. And this is also interesting in that it's just the period between the changeover from the convex mouldings of the early clocks to the concave mouldings between the trunk and the head and the trunk and the base. But here you've got halfway in between with a little bit of concave and a little bit of convex, just to be awkward, so, you can't really decide which it's meant to be but it certainly looked beautiful. The case had suffered very badly over the years and worst of all some bright spark had replaced some of the red Boulle with red plastic, which had been Araldited into place but it's been restored. It took over 5 years to complete the restoration and it's been beautifully done and it's now back into its pristine condition, as it would have been when Daniel Quare finished it and passed it over to its new owner.