The walnut case surmounted by a stepped hood with blind fretwork frieze and brass ball finials, over an arched dial flanked by brass-mounted columns, the dial with silvered chapter ring and brass filigree spandrels, enclosing Roman and Arabic numerals and date and seconds subsidiary dials, signed 'Dan: Quare & / Ste: Horseman / London 244', the case on a stepped plinth base
103¹⁄₂ in. (262.9 cm.) high

Private Collection, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
With Ronald Klinger, Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania.

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Lot Essay

Daniel Quare (c.1649-1724) became one of the most illustrious clockmakers of England's golden age of horology. The earliest record of him is his appearance in the minutes of a Clockmakers' Company Quarter Court on 3 April 1671, when he was admitted as a Brother of the Company. In 1698, Quare was selected as a member of the Court of Assistants of the Clockmakers' Company. In 1705 he was made Junior Warden and he subsequently rose through the ranks to become Master in 1708.

George I offered Quare the post of King's Watchmaker for £300 per year. However, as a Quaker, he was unable to swear the necessary Oath of Allegiance. Even so, the King allowed him free access to the Palace at any time.

Around 1701 Quare took his former apprentice Stephen Horseman into partnership, and Horseman himself joined the Clockmakers' Company in 1709. After a long and storied career, Quare ultimately retired to Croydon, where he died in 1724.