A rare William III ebonised table timepiece with alarm John Bushman, London, circa 1695 The five finned baluster pillar single fusee movement with verge escapement regulated by disc-bob pendulum and pull-wind alarm mechanism incorporating vertical verge crown wheel and pallets to the cranked hammer arbor for sounding on the bell mounted above the plates, the backplate applied with pierced leafy backcock apron and alarm winding pulley over symmetrical scrolling foliate engraved decoration enveloping a central oval herringbone-bordered cartouche enclosing signature John Bushman, LONDON, the 7 inch square brass dial with ringed winding hole, herringbone border engraved shaped false bob aperture and scroll decorated calendar to the finely matted centre within silvered Roman numeral chapter ring with stylised sword-hilt half hour markers and Arabic five minutes to outer track, with fine sculpted pierced steel hands including another for alarm setting and silvered cast winged cherub head spandrels to angles, the case with foliate bud cast hinged brass carrying handle to the domed caddy superstructure and pair of brass vase finials over complex top mouldings and glazed front door applied with scroll-pierced brass repousse mounts to frame, the sides with rectangular windows and the rear with rectangular glazed door applied with further repousse mounts set within the frame of the case, the base with further complex mouldings to the shallow skirt over block feet, 35cm (13.75ins) high excluding handle. John Bushman (Buschmann) is recorded in Loomes, Brian Clockmakers of Britain 1286-1700 as a `High German` watchmaker born in Hagen (Augsburg) circa 1661 and was made brother of the Clockmakers` Company in September 1692. He first married Mary Wyatt in the Parish of St. Margaret, Westminster in December 1690 with whom he had four children; and then Elizabeth Hill at All Hallows, Staining in 1695 with whom he had eight children (most dying in infancy). In 1697 John Buschmann signed the Clockmakers' Company the oath of allegiance; he was subsequently made an Assistant in 1720 and died in 1722. John Buschmann was descended from a celebrated dynasty of clockmakers who worked from Augsburg throughout the 16th and 17th centuries. These roots allowed relatively easy access to the lucrative German market, consequently many of his clocks were made for export. His work tends to be of fine quality and fairly diverse in specification with miniature and month duration table clocks known. Indeed the relatively diverse nature of his output probably reflected the need for him to be flexible in order to satisfy the individual requirements of his wealthy European clients. The backplate of the current lot exhibits particularly fine engraving which closely conforms to that executed on many clocks by Thomas Tompion by engraver G195 as discussed in Dzik, Sunny ENGRAVING ON ENGLISH TABLE CLOCKS, Art on a Canvas of Brass 1660-1800 in Appendix 1 (pages 379-95). In particular, on page 385, Dzik illustrates (Figure 5) the backplates of Tompion numbers 410 and 417 with self-crossing vines and 'fluffy flowers' highlighted; when these are compared to the decoration seen on the present backplate the match is almost exact hence, from this evidence, it would be appropriate to surmise that it was also engraved by Tompion's engraver G195. The current lot is unusual in that it is an alarm timepiece only, this would suggest that it was made exclusively for use in the bedchamber. From this it would be appropriate to speculate the original owner was probably a particularly wealthy individual who could afford a timepiece for this purpose alone rather than having a clock which was designed to also be taken 'downstairs' for use during the day. On closer examination the pendulum of the current lot has been converted from a fixed bob with rod applied directly to the pallet arbor to a disc-bob pendulum with suspension and driven by a crutch (the verge escapement survives in its original configuration). The presence of a silk suspended pendulum would indicate that the present timepiece has spent time on the Continent as this feature is typical of clocks made in near Continental Europe rather than the fixed-bob arrangement favoured by English makers. With this in mind it is likely that the current timepiece was probably made by Buschmann for a client based in Continental Europe, perhaps Germany, hence may well have spent most of its life residing in a bedchamber of a German Schloss.