AN IMPRESSIVE INLAID MAHOGANY EIGHT-DAY QUARTER CHIMING LONGCASE CLOCK WITH MOONPHASE The dial bearing a signature for Robert Roskill, Liverpool, circa 1900 incorporating earlier elements The substantial five columnar pillar triple train movement with plates measuring 9 by 11 inches and deadbeat escapement regulated by seconds pendulum, the chiming train incorporating a choice of two sets of notations for the quarters sounding via transverse pinned cylinder on eight tubular gongs suspended from the case backboard and the hour train sounding on an additional larger gong, the 14 inch brass break-arch dial with subsidiary seconds dial and bearing inscription Robert Roskill, Liverpool to the foliate scroll engraved silvered centre within applied Roman numeral chapter ring with scroll and sceptre half hour markers and Arabic five minutes to outer track, with pierced blued steel hands, mask inhabited scroll cast spandrels to angles and strike/silent opposing chime selection levers to margins, the arch with rolling moonphase incorporating terrestrial globe engraved silvered lunettes and age of the moon scale to the upper margin, in a case in the manner of Gillows with cavetto moulded swan neck pediment, gilt pagoda and wheatsheaf floral decorated panel inserts and break-arch frieze over the hinged glazed dial aperture applied with reeded Roman Doric half-columns to stiles and flanked by conforming complete free standing columns, the sides each with lozenge panel inlaid frieze over rectangular brass grille sound fret and conforming pilaster planted next to bargeboards at the rear, the trunk with concave throat and alternating lozenge and shaped diamond panel inlaid frieze over shaped-top caddy-moulded door veneered with an oval flame figured panel within line border and quartered infill, flanked by free-standing columns to angles and with small rectangular panel beneath, the sides each inlaid with an arrangement of oval circular panels within triple line borders and conforming quartered infill, the plinth base with stepped ogee top mouldings over conforming circular panel inlaid front flanked by canted angles, on ogee bracket feet. 260cm (102.5ins) high excluding finials, 69cm (27ins) wide, 38cm (15ins) deep. Provenance: The Selwyn Demmy Collection. The case if the current lot is of particularly fine quality and essentially dates to around 1810. The overall attention to detail - in particular the precision of the inlay, crispness of the mouldings and superb column turnings indicates that the case was made by a leading workshop, hence would warrant a possible attribution to Gillows of Lancaster. The movement is also of fine quality but was made around 1900 and, in order to create room for the tubular bells/gongs, required the case to be increased in depth by around 2 inches. This work was executed extremely well with a great deal of effort taken to ensure perfect integration with the earlier elements. Indeed the sides of the trunk would have required r-veneering with the current arrangement of oval and circular panels no doubt being devised at that time to add decorative detail so to lessen the effect of the increased depth.