A GEORGE II EBONIZED MANTEL CLOCK

CIRCA 1760, BY ALEX CUMMING, INVERARAY

Details

A GEORGE II EBONIZED MANTEL CLOCK
Circa 1760, By Alex Cumming, Inveraray
The silvered chapter ring centering a date and pendulum aperture, the arch with strike/silent dials for hours and quarters and a seconds dial within scrolled spandrels, the case with a caddy lid and a carrying handle, the sides with pierced scalloped sounding panels on square stepped feet, with floral engraved backplate with maker's signature, the three-train movement with anchor escapement striking the hour on a bell and quarters on eight bells, with pull repeat, with an engraved metal plaque to back, 'This Clock was given by William IV to Miss d'Este afterwards Lady Truro/At the Sale of her effects it was bought by Lady who sold it to W. Page/from whom it was acquired by R.M. Kerr'
20½in. (52cm.) high

Provenance

According to the inscription, given by King William IV to Augusta Emma d'Este (d.1866), daughter of H.R.H.Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex and sixth son of George III, and married to Thomas Wilde, Baron Truro of Bowes
Purchased at the sale of her effects by Lady Holland, possibly Mary Augusta (d.1889), daughter of George William, 8th Earl of Coventry and married to Henry Edward Fox, Baron Holland
W.Page
R.M.Kerr

Lot Essay

The maker of this clock is Alexander Cumming, a Scottish clockmaker who was one of the founding members of the Royal Society in Edinburgh. He was working with his brother, John, in Inverarary by 1752 and moved to London by 1763 supplying the first self-recording barograph to George III which is still in the Royal collection at Buckingham Palace (M.Cosh, 'Clockmaker Extraordinary: The Career of Alexander Cumming', Country Life, 12 June 1969, pp.1528-35). Other barographs by Cumming are in the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. A wall barograph by this maker was sold by Sotheby's New York, 25 January 1997, lot 60.

A history of this clock's ownership appears on an engraved plaque. The clock was reputedly a gift from King William IV to Augusta Emma D'Este, 'Mademoiselle D'Este', whose marriage to Baron Truro in 1845 was celebrated in the following verses: 'Happy the pair who fondly sigh/By Fancy and by love beguiled/He views as heaven his D'Este nigh She vows her fate will make her wild'. Lady Truro was the daughter of H.R.H. Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex (sixth son of George III) and Augusta Murray, daughter of the 4th Earl of Dunmore, who were enjoined in a 'ecclesiastic' but not legal marriage.