A GEORGE III BRASS MOUNTED QUARTER-CHIMING TABLE CLOCK WITH FIRED ENAMEL DIAL PANELS Joshua Drabble, London, circa 1795 The six pillar triple fusee movement with verge escapement regulated by lenticular bob pendulum incorporating pivoted rise/fall regulation to suspension, chiming the quarters on a graduated nest of eight bells and sounding the hour on a further larger bell, the backplate signed Joshua Drabble, London and with pivoted pendulum holdfast to centre, the 8 inch gilt brass break-arch dial plate applied with fired enamel Roman numeral hour disk signed JOSHUA DRABBLE, LONDON to centre and with Arabic five minutes to outer track, with pierced blued steel hands and rococo foliate scroll pierced spandrels to angles, the arch with subsidiary enamel regulation disk over Silent/Strike switch flanked by conforming mounts, the break-arch top case with hinged brass carrying handle over complex double top mouldings and brass fillet inset hinged front door with glazed dial aperture and brass-edged corners, the sides with rectangular brass fish scale sound frets and the rear with door matching the front except for having wooden fillet mouldings bordering the aperture, on cavetto moulded skirt base with brass bracket feet. 43cm (17ins) high excluding handle, 30.5cm (12ins) wide, 19cm (7.5ins) deep. Provenance: Acquired by the present owner from Asprey, London in 1997. Joshua Drabble does not appear to be directly recorded in the usual sources however it is most likely that he is connected to the father and son clockmakers each named Joseph Drabble who are recorded in Baillie G.H. Watchmakers & Clockmakers of the World as working circa 1720-80 and in around 1795 respectively. Joshua Drabble appears to have been an accomplished maker with a regulator by him being one of the first items donated to the Royal Astronomical Society. This timepiece was formerly the property of Colonel Mark Beaufoy, one of the first members of the Royal Astronomical Society, and was presented upon his death by his son, George in 1827. This regulator was often loaned out to fellows and actively used in scientific experiments in the years after it came to the Society, before returning to Burlington House where it remains central to the Society's historical legacy.