A George III quarter repeating ebony table clock, Thomas Colley, London, circa 1760

George Graham, an important clockmaker, worked for and was in partnership with the most famous of all English clockmakers, Thomas Tompion. On Tompion's death in 1713 Graham inherited the business as Tompion's successor. In 1715 he took, as one of his apprentices, Samuel Barkley and also employed Thomas Colley as a journeyman. Both men lived and worked with Graham and were appointed his executors. On Graham's death in 1751 they succeeded to Graham's business in Fleet Street, London but the partnership was short lived as Barkley died in 1753. Thomas Colley then worked alone as Graham's successor from 1754 until 1762 when he took John Priest into partnership. Colley died in 1771. It is evident that Thomas Colley held his former employer in high esteem as he named his eldest son George Graham Colley.

The present clock is a good example of Colley's work incorporating many of the features found in the later clocks by Graham such as the dial layout with regulation and strike silent dial and finely moulded ebony case.