Ok, recht hast Du.
Aufgrund Eurer Hinweise, habe ich Sir George White von der Clockmasters Company London angeschrieben und um Rat bezüglich des Uhrwerks gebeten.
Hier seine Antwort:
Dear Klaus Leifels,
The movement, weights and pendulum of your clock are undoubtedly early 18th century and by Francis Robinson of London. The case is substantially later and perhaps provincial. The dial however is very unusual indeed. At a guess I would say that the clock was commissioned to celebrate a marriage of two families, whose armorial bearings ao[[ear in the bottom left and bottom right hand corners of the dial. The owner's crest is a gryphon, which appears in the top left hand corner. His monogram appears in the top right.
This is very unusual. Indeed, I have never seen a London dial of this period engraved in that way.
The minute hand of the clock is a later replacement, as is the seconds hand, but the hour hand, though damaged and repaired is mostly original. There is no doubt that some of the wheel-work of the clock has been removed. I suspect that it once had alarmwork, which is now missing. This would account for the empty hole in the dial centre, the enlarged hole through which the hands project and the various empty holes in the movement.
While Francis Robinson's workshop records are not known to exist, I would suggest that you should get in touch with the College of Arms in London, who (if the armorial bearings were originally properly registered), should be able to identify them and the crest, which should allow you to work out the monogram.
You can contact them through their website:
http://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/servi ... s-or-crest
What a really interesting clock !
With best wishes,
George White.
Sir George White Bt., F.S.A., Keeper,
The Clockmakers' Museum at The Science Museum
Exhibition Road,
South Kensington, London SW7 2DD
Website:
www.clockmakers.org
