AN EBONISED TABLE TIMEPIECE WITH SILENT PULL-QUARTER REPEAT AND MOONPHASEUNSIGNED, PROBABLY DUTCH, THIRD QUARTER OF THE 18th CENTURYThe four pillar single fusee movement with verge escapement regulated by bob pendulum and pull-quarter repeat sounding the hours and quarters on a graduated pair of bells positioned vertically above the plates, the 6.5 inch brass break-arch dial with calendar aperture to the matted centre within applied silvered Roman numeral chapter ring with Arabic five minutes beyond the minute track, with pierced steel hands and cast mask and scroll spandrels to angles beneath arch centred with a 'penny moon' providing a visual indication for the age of the moon within outer silvered ring calibrated for the lunar month flanked by conforming grotesque mask and scroll cast spandrels, the ebonised inverted bell-top case with generous hinged cast brass carrying handle over double cavetto top mouldings and brass fillet inset glazed dial aperture and upper quadrant panels to the front door, the sides with circular over concave-topped glazed apertures, the rear with brass fillet inset break-arch glazed rectangular door, on cavetto moulded skirt with squab feet.43cm (17ins) high with handle down 26cm (10.25ins) wide, 17cm (6.75ins) deep.The current lot will sound the hours and quarters on demand only hence is of a type traditionally described as a 'silent' pull quarter repeating clock. It is thought that such clocks were made for use exclusively in the bed chamber to allow the owner to establish the time during hours of darkness (by pulling the repeat cord) without having to go to the trouble of striking a light. Due to clocks and timepieces being very expensive at that time the original owner would have been a particularly wealthy individual to be able to afford a clock for use just in the bed chamber. Indeed many full hour-striking bracket/table clocks fitted with repeat-work have a facility to silence the strike train so that they can be 'taken upstairs' at night (thus negating the need to own more than one spring clock) this is why such clocks were traditionally made with a carrying handle.The design/layout of the repeat mechanism in the current lot is based upon the system first devised by Edward Barlow and/or Daniel Quare in around 1676 which, in practice, seems to have been first put to use by Joseph Knibb (see Dawson, Percy G., Drover, C.B., and Parkes D.W. Early English Clocks pages 343-4).