LATE 18TH OR EARLY 19TH CENTURY

Details

A CHINESE SMALL PASTE-SET GILT-METAL STRIKING AND MUSICAL TABLE CLOCK
LATE 18TH OR EARLY 19TH CENTURY
CASE: the top surmounted by a pagoda with bells, richly embellished overall with coloured paste gems (variously replaced), the top with cast and matted decoration, the lower panels with ringed decoration, projecting 'feathered' angle mounts to all angles, those to the front with inset paste decoration, silk-backed foliate cast oval sound frets to the sides, open cast panel to rear door, the plinth with further foliate mounts and raised on outswept feet DIAL: white enamel, with gilt-metal hands, set from below, under paste-set bezel MOVEMENT: three day duration, five pillars, triple chain fusees, plain balance to verge escapement, hour strike, half hour passing strike (lacking hammer) and two tune music on eight bells with fifteen hammers via 1¾ in. long pinned barrel, music selection and winding to rear, the back plate engraved with leafy sprigs and a stylised cornucopia, secured with two plain brackets; winding key, hand set key
13¼ in. (33.5 cm.); 5¾ in. (14.5 cm.) square

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Lot Essay

An apparently identical clock (with some additional larger paste gems), quite possibly the pair to the present example is in the Palace Museum, Beijing and illustrated in Lu Yangzhen (senior editor), Timepieces Collected by the Qing Emperors in the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1995, p. 170. A small 'pagoda' form Chinese clock of related design but with quarter-striking movement was also sold Christie's London, 27 May 2010, lot 37 (£46,850).

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