Lot 29

John Bushman, London, Height 440 mm, circa 1700
A quarter repeating bracket clock with hour self strike, alarm and date
Case: wood, ebonized, brass. Dial: applied silvered chapter ring, gilt brass mask. Movm.: rectangular shaped movement, gilt, finely engraved with flowers and leaves, 2 x chain/fusee, verge escapement, quarter chiming with 5 hammers on 5 bells, hour striking on a separate bell.
The ebonised and moulded body sits on four brass console feet. Front and back have glass panels, the spandrels and the sides are open-worked against a green silk background. Inverted roof section with urns in each corner, solid brass handle.
Intricately ornamented dial with silvered chapter ring with Roman hours and gilt, matted centre with date window and badge with signature. Above, additional silvered hour ring with central alarm disc and window for mock pendulum. On the left, silvered ring for strike/silence, on the right, silvered chapter ring for seconds. Gilt brass ground with applied scrolls, putti and heads.
John Bushman (also Buschman or Buschmann) was born 1661 in Augsburg, Germany. In 1690 he got married as Johannes Busshman to 23 year old Mary Wyatt at Christ Church, London. In 1692 he became a Brother of the Clockmakers Company and was made an Assistant in 1720. Bushman presumably worked until 1725. The book "Merkwürdige Reisen durch Niedersachsen Holland und Engelland" (Curious travels through Lower Saxony, Holland and England, first published in 1753) by Zaccharias Konrad Uffenbach mentions him as a watchmaker just as good as Daniel Quare or Thomas Tompion: "He is well and truly a humble, polite and goodly man who still speaks good German and never cheats his customers!" He is known to have created several clocks with serpent automatons.

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