John Roberts, Dartmouth, a rare shuttlecock automata longcase clock: the eight-day duration movement striking the hours on a bell, with the thirteen-inch painted break-arch dial having black Roman hour numerals with the centre having a subsidiary seconds dial and signed for the maker John Roberts, Dartmouth and painted to each corner with a depiction of a flint house with tower, the arch having a painted scene of a couple playing badminton within a garden, the shuttlecock moving between each player's racquet with each beat of the clock, the mahogany case with canted corners to the trunk, a curved moulding to the trunk door, boxwood stringing to the base and trunk, the hood having an architectural pediment with a brass eagle-and-ball finial between and columns with cast-brass capitals, all standing on bracket feet, height 226cms. * Biography John Roberts is recorded as working as a watch & clockmaker in Dartmouth in 1793. Reference The Universal British Directory 1793.