A GEORGE II 'HOOK-AND-SPIKE' WEIGHT-DRIVEN THIRTY-HOUR WALL CLOCKGILKES, ADDERBURY, CIRCA 1745The posted countwheel bell striking movement with anchor escapement regulated by seconds pendulum, the frame with slender rectangular posts rivetted both at the top and bottom plates and incorporating integral forged spikes issuing from the bases of the two rear pillars, the 11.5 inch square brass dial with zig-zag decorated concentric band engraved infill to centre within applied silvered Roman numeral chapter ring with diamond lozenge half-hour markers and signed Gilkes, Adderbury to lower margin, with bold pierced sculpted steel hand and female mask and scroll rough-cast spandrels to angles.31cm (12.25ins) high including bell, 15cm (6ins) deep.Richard Gilkes is recorded in Beeson, C.F.C. Clockmaking in Oxfordshire 1400-1850 as a Quaker, son of clockmaker Thomas Gilkes and his wife Anne, born 18th April 1715. Richard was apprenticed to his father and was married within the Quaker community to Grace Gilkes at the Sibford Gower Meeting House, 13rd March 1744. The couple had six children between 1746 and 1760 however his first two sons, both named Thomas, died before reaching adulthood. Grace Gilkes died in 1763, and Richard in 1787 aged 72, and was buried in the Friends cemetery at Adderbury West. Although Richard Gilkes was a fairly prolific maker of thirty-hour clocks earlier in his life he produced very few clocks during the last fifteen years or so. As there were no male heirs to whom he could bequeath his workshop the clockmaker, Thomas Fardon, continued the business for a year before Joseph Williams established himself as the resident Adderbury clockmaker.The current lot can be described as a 'textbook' example of Richard Gilkes's work with features such as riveted iron frame incorporating integral spikes to the rear pillars, concentric zig-zag engraving to the dial centre, bold sculpted steel hand a rough-cast spandrels being highly typical of his clocks executed in the Oxfordshire Quaker tradition.