A rare George III mahogany hour-striking tavern clock

A rare George III mahogany hour-striking tavern clock The dial signed for Desbois and Wheeler, London, early 19th century The five pillar two train rack and bell striking movement with four-wheel trains and anchor escapement regulated by steel-rod brass-faced lenticular bob pendulum with effective length of approximately 30.5 inches, set on a seatboard behind the 16 inch circular white painted Roman numeral dial inscribed DESBOIS & WHEELER, GRAYS INN PASSAGE to centre and with counterweighted steel spade hands set behind a heavy cast brass convex moulded hinged glazed bezel applied to an ogee moulded wooden surround, the drop-trunk box case with movement access doors inset with sound frets to sides over flame figured panel flanked by shaped ears to throat and concave-topped rectangular caddy-moulded door, the square base terminating with a complex moulded collar over pendulum access flap to underside, 109cm (43ins) high. Daniel Desbois was apprenticed to John Johnson at Grays Inn Passage and took over his business from circa 1790 to 1846, dying two years later in 1848. The partnership between Daniel Desbois and Wheeler is also recorded in Baillie, G.H., Clutton, C. and Ilbert, C.A. BRITTEN'S Old Clocks and Watches and their Makers as working from Grays Inn Passage, London 1803-35.