A George III forged iron and steel weight-driven spit roasting jack Anonymous, southern England, third quarter of the 18th century The three wheel train with concealed winding clicks to the greatwheel arbor beneath fine baluster turned first and second wheel arbors with the latter driving a vertical worm gear for the fly, the frame with elaborate C-scroll forged iron frontplate incorporating stylised hogs mask motif applied with the worm gear lower potance behind, fixed via two ogee-moulded nuts to the top and lower bars riveted to conforming vertical bar and pair of hoops terminated with drilled pads for wall mounting at the rear, with later fly forged with three serpentine-shaped arms and a winding key (no weight), now mounted on an shaped oak wall panel, the frontplate 35cm (13.75ins) high. Comparable jacks to the current lot are discussed in Gentle, Rupert and Feild, Belinda DOMESTIC METALWORK 1640-1820 pages 247-49. The gearing of the current lot is around four times higher than that of the previous lot (a comparable two-wheel jack) hence the mechanism would run for a much longer period between winds. However in order to maintain comparable output torque a much heavier weight would be required. I would like to thank Tony Weston for his assistance with the cataloguing of the current and previous lots.