A FINE QUEEN ANNE/GEORGE I 'TORTOISESHELL' JAPANNED EIGHT-DAY QUARTER CHIMING LONGCASE CLOCK John Faver, London, circa 1715 The substantial six pillar triple train bell striking movement with plates measuring 8.75 by 7.25 inches, anchor escapement regulated by seconds pendulum and chiming the quarters on a nest of six graduated bells, the 12 inch brass break-arch dial with subsidiary seconds dial and calendar aperture to the finely matted centre within applied Roman numeral chapter ring with fleur-de-lys half hour markers and Arabic five minutes to outer track, with scroll-pierced steel hands and fine mask and scroll cast spandrels to angles beneath arch centred with a convex boss signed John Faver, Gerrat Street, London within herringbone border over Strike/Silent selection switch flanked by conforming cornucopia and scroll cast mounts, the simulated tortoiseshell japanned case with gilt landscape painted domed caddy surmounted box upstand, architectural cornice and floral spray decorated upper quadrants above the glazed hood door with alternating gilt floral and trellis band decoration and applied with three-quarter columns to front angles, the sides with rectangular windows and conforming quarter columns set against bargeboards at the rear, the trunk with floral trail painted throat over rectangular door decorated in raised silver highlighted gilt with a stylised oriental garden trellis landscape populated by an equestrian hunting party under a solar disc, the surround with trellis banded panels alternating with foliate trails and landscape infill, the sides with birds in flight over large leafy sprays, the plinth base decorated with floral still life within conforming trellis panel border over double skirt. 257cm (101ins) high, 51cm (20ins) wide, 25.5cm (10ins) deep. A John Faver is recorded in Baillie, G.H. Watchmakers & Clockmakers of the World as working in London before 1759. Baillie suggests that 'Faver' maybe an anglicisation of the French name 'Fauvre' and that John Faver may well be connected to Henry Fauvre. Loomes in Volume 2 further notes a date of 1741; it is likely that John Faver had Huguenot roots and was a fine maker with two watches in the collection of the Fitzwilliam museum. The combination of quarter chiming movement and highly decorative, finely proportioned tortoiseshell japanned case results in the present clock being a particularly impressive example which would have been the height of fashion during the second decade of the 18th century.