Gravell & Tolkien: a watch and clock collection (1792-1807)

I want to gather in one place all known descriptions of the watches and clocks by famous London firm of Gravell & Tolkien. I will be adding new items as soon as I find new ones. And I want to ask you to help me to find them. 

49 Saint John Street, Clerkenwell
according to John Tallis'
street views produced
in 1838-1847

As you remember from my earlies posts, John Benjamin Tolkien (born in Gdansk, Poland in 1752 and died in Pentonville, London in 1819) had a watch- and clockmakers company at 49 St. John's Street, Clerkenwell (1792–1807). As Mark D. Bischop in his Ancestral Chains wrote: "William Gravell [II] Senior & his colleague, John Benjamin Tolkien [J. R. R. Tolkien's great-great-grandfather], in partnership, took over the business of a well-know clockmaker & the member of the Clockmakers' Company, Eardley Norton, on a latter's death. A very skilled mechanic, Eardley Norton, is listed as working at 49 St. John's Street, Clerkenwell, between 1762, when he was freed, until 1794. He is best known for making complex timepieces, sometimes with musical & astronomical movements, for the export markets, including Turkey & the Far East. Probably the most notable of these being the Four-Dial Astronomical Clock which he made to stand in the library of Backingham Palace. In addition, there are clocks made by him in numerous museums worldwide, including a bracket clock in Virginia Museum & an Automation Clock in the Palace Museum, Peking. (...) [John Benjamin Tolkien] started working with William Gravell [II] Senior in 1790 (...)." 

In 1792, at the age of 39, John Benjamin Tolkien became a co-owner of the clock and watchmaker firm which is known as Gravell & Tolkien. One of the earliest clocks made by Gravell & Tolkien can be seen in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Russia (see here). Let me start to present the watches and clocks of Gravell & Tolkien from this one:

• Item #1, clock No. 2128 (?) from 1792, Hermitage Palace, St. Petersburg, Russia
  
  (from The Hermitage Museum catalogue, found by Maria Artamanova, source)
  
  The clock is described on the attached plaque:
  

By a Special Command Of
HER MAJESTY CATHERINE II
EMPRESS OF RUSSIA,
THIS CLOCK was designed and
commenced by
EARDLEY NORTON,
49, St. John Street, London;
and finished by his successors:
GRAVELL and TOLKIEN,
in 1792.

• Item #2, clock No. 2347 from the end of the 18th century, commisioned for ?
  
  (from Bonhams website - see the source)
  
  "Gravell & Tolkien, Successors to Eardley Norton, London. Numbered 2347.
  The bell topped case surmounted by five urn finials over a pair of side handles and arched glazed apertures lined with a brass quadrant moulding to a moulded plinth and block feet, the 7 inch brass dial with shallow arched top set with twin subsidiaries for the strike/silent and rise and fall pendulum regulation, Roman and Arabic chapter ring enclosed by pierced spandrels, the matted centre set with a chamfered date aperture with pin-hole adjustment, with blued steel hands, the twin gut fusee movement with substantial rectangular plates united by five heavy knopped pillars, the movement with (later) deadbeat escapement with heavy pendulum bob 4.25 inches in diameter and scratch numbered 2347, with rack strike on a bell, the backplate signed in flowing copperplate script and numbered 2347 to the top right hand corner 54cm (21in) high."
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Item #3, clock No. 2454 from the end of the 18th century, commisioned for ?
  
  (from Artnet website - see the source)
  
  "Gravell & Tolkien: An English George III mahogany table clock. 'GRAVELL & TOLKIEN, LONDON No. 2454’. Late 18th century. H. 51 cm. W. 37 cm. D. 26,5 cm. , ca. 1775–1799"
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Item #4, clock No. 3272 from c. 1800, commisioned for ?
  
  (from HutchinsonScott Auctioneers - see the source)
  
  "GRAVELL & TOLKIEN, LONDON A GEORGE III EBONISED BRACKET CLOCK the arch top case with brass finials, side carrying handles and front caryatid columns enclosing an 8” painted arch dial with Roman numerals and Arabic outer minutes, centre calendar and subsidiary Strike/Silent dial to the arch fronting an eight day quarter chiming movement on two bells with verge escapement and engraved border to the signed backplate: the clock comes with its original brass mounted bracket 57cm high, bracket measures 32cm high."
   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Item #5, clock No. ? from c. 1800, commisioned for ?
  
  (from Pendulum of Mayfair website - see the source)
  
  "A superb round brass silvered dial mahogany case domestic regulator grandfather clock. The ‘8 day’ duration movement by Gravell & Tolkien. This together with dead-beat escapement, maintaining power and wood rod pendulum. The makers were successors to Eardley Norton. A very special clock and of superb colour and patination.(...). Finally I would say a lovely clock that would suit any home."
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Item #6, clock No. 3587 from 1795-1805, commisioned for the Imperial Kazan University, Kazan, Russia
  
  (from the Kazan Federal University website - see the source, and below my translation)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  "What connects the fate of the great mathematician, founder of non-Euclidean geometry, rector (1827-1846) and at the same time librarian, chairman of the construction committee of Kazan University Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky and world famous writer, author of The Hobbit and the famous The Lord of the Rings, John Ronald Ruel Tolkien? Surprisingly, but this is an old grandfather clock in the exposition of the Museum of History of Kazan University, Russia.
  
  Its tall, stately mahogany construction and melodic chimes attract attention during excursions and meetings with guests. According to legend, the clock was in N. I. Lobachevsky's possession, later in the Geometric Office, where, through the efforts of mathematicians of Kazan University, for many years the manuscripts and books of N. I. Lobachevsky, his students and followers were gathered. The clock became one of the first exhibits in the Museum of History in the late 1970s.
  
  A grandfather clock of such a plan is usually called "Grandfather's Clock", after a quote borrowed from the famous song of the same name by the English composer of the late 19th century, Henry Clay Work. However, the university clock is directly related to the very real "grandfather" - the great-great-grandfather of the writer John R. R. Tolkien - John Benjamin Tolkien, who at the end of the 18th century was one of the best watchmakers in London.
  
  (...) The mechanism of the university, museum clock has the serial number "3587" and was made a little later, in the interval 1795-1805.
  
  As John R.R. Tolkien himself wrote in his memoirs, most of his ancestors along his father's line were craftsmen.(...)"
  
  
• Item #7, clock No. 3705 from c. 1805 (?), commisioned for ?
  
  (from The Clock Work Shop website - see the source)
  

  "Extremely Rare Four Train Musical Longcase Clock by Gravell & Tolkien.

  A fine George III period musical longcase clock of 8-day duration, numbered 3705 on both the plates and dial, features a dead-beat escapement, maintaining power, four trains; going, strike, quarter-chime and musical with 12 different choices on a total on 17 bells, including options of strike/silent and piano/forte (soft/loud). This is rather a complicated clock, however, extremely well made, very high quality and hands down the heaviest longcase I have ever handled!

  The dial measures 12.5” by 17.5”, break arch base dial with the 12 tune selection in the break-arch above the two silvered subsidiary dials for strike/silent and Piano/Forte (soft/loud).

  The slim silvered chapter ring features both Roman and Arabic numerals with exceptionally finely cut blued steel hands with musical bagpipe spandrels to the corners and seconds below XII the centre is signed Gravell & Tolkein, London 3705 between scrolling foliage and sweep centre calendar.

  A fiddle-back mahogany break arch case with three finials and fine fretwork between, the brass framed hood door aperture with satinwood and ebony branding flanked by carved acanthus volute columns. Fretted access doors to the hood sides. The correspondingly stepped base moulding with a matching raised panel and double skirted foot. Stepped throat mouldings with acanthus leaf capitals to fluted columns below centre by the flat top break arch fiddle back trunk door with matching banding.

  Provenance: Private collection U.S.A."
  
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  To be continued...