A fine, rare japanned musical table clock, Simon De Charmes, London, circa 1715

the 8¼-inch dial with silvered chapter ring set on a gilt-brass dial plate finely engraved with squirrels, foliate scrolls and metamorphic birds, the two lower corners with dials for day-of-the-week and month, the upper corners with dials for regulation and tune selection, the arch with a penny moon dial within a lunar calendar ring, the matted centre with calendar and mock pendulum apertures, signed S.De Charmes, London, a strike/not strike lever by IX, the substantial three train fusee and chain  trip repeating movement with eight ringed and knopped pillars, pivoted verge escapment with rise and fall regulation, playing one of two tunes every hour on eight bells with fifteen hammers, a further bell for the hour, the backplate well engraved in the same style as the dial plate and within a wheatear border, the case with urn finials and a domed caddy cresting above a pierced brass frieze fret, the sides with carrying handles above well pierced and engraved gilt-brass frets, the base with a key drawer and raised on turned feet, the whole well decorated with chinoiseries in shades of gilt on a dark green/black ground

R.A.Lee, Bruton Place circa 1975

Simon De Charmes, a Huguenot refugee, came to London and was made a Free Brother in the Clockmakers' Company in 1691; it is thought he died in 1730. His work is very similar to that of Claude Du Chesne a fellow Huguenot.