A George III mahogany eight-day quarter chiming longcase clock Robert Sampson, London, dated 1785 The substantial five pillar movement with anchor escapement regulated by seconds pendulum, chiming the hours on a graduated best of four bells and rack striking the hour on a further larger bell, the 12 inch brass break arch dial with subsidiary seconds over calendar dial incorporating recessed silvered signature plate engraved Rob't, Sampson, Petty France, Westmin'r to the matted centre within applied silvered Roman numeral chapter ring, with pierced blued steel hands and cast rococo scroll spandrels to angles beneath arch applied with silvered chime/silent selection dial unusually engraved Joseph Harborne, 23th Feb'y: 1785 flanked by conforming rococo mounts, in a mahogany pagoda-top case with oval burr yew inlaid panel to superstructure, cavetto cornice and arched fretwork frieze over brass stop fluted columns flanking the glazed dial aperture, the sides with rectangular windows and quarter columns applied to bargeboards at the rear, the trunk with keystone decorated crossbanded break-arch door flanked by quarter columns over plinth base fronted with conforming shaped raised panel and turned roundels to angles, on moulded double skirt, 240cm (94.5ins) high. Provenance: The property of a private collector, Hertfordshire. Robert Sampson is recorded in Baillie, G.H. Watchmakers & Clockmakers of the World as working in Westminster, London 1779-93Baillie also notes that Sampson was awarded a prize from the Society of Arts for a chiming mechanism. The engraved inscription to the circumference of the silvered chime/silent ring to the arch of the dial of the current lot is unusual and suggests that the clock was supplied as a presentation piece. A cursory online search by the cataloguer for any records relating to Joseph Harborne has so far failed to yield any information however more exhaustive genealogical research will no doubt shed some light on who was almost certainly the original owner of the present clock.