A walnut table clock, signed on a plaque behind the false pendulum S de Charmes London, c. 1730. The case has an inverted-bell top, surmounted by a carrying handle. The sides of the case have pierced wooden sound frets, whilst the clock is raised on block feet. The arched brass dial has a silvered chapter ring around a matted centre, which shows two winding holes, a date aperture and mock-pendulum aperture. In the arch is a rise-and-fall regulation dial. The double-fusee verge movement of eight-day duration has an elaborately engraved backplate. The clock strikes the hours on a single bell and has pull-quarter repeat on a nest of bells. • Height: 39 cm (15.5in). • The maker, Simon de Charmes, was active in the final years of the seventeenth and the first half of the eighteenth centuries. He originated in Paris and probably fled to England for religious reasons. He was a watchmaker, but also made longcase and bracket clocks, of which this one is an example. • Literature: B. Loomes, Watchmakers and Clockmakers of the World, London, 2006, p. 326). • Literature: Brian Loomes, Watch and Clockmakers of the World, London, 2006, p. 230.