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A VICTORIAN GILT-BRASS STRIKING TABLE CLOCK WITH MOONPHASE, CALENDAR AND BAROMETER

ATTRIBUTED TO THOMAS COLE, RETAILED BY HUNT & ROSKELL, LONDON, CIRCA 1850

Details

A VICTORIAN GILT-BRASS STRIKING TABLE CLOCK WITH MOONPHASE, CALENDAR AND BAROMETER
ATTRIBUTED TO THOMAS COLE, RETAILED BY HUNT & ROSKELL, LONDON, CIRCA 1850
CASE: the two-section case of architectural form and profusely engraved overall, the finial formerly with thermometer tube above a platform with moon phase aperture to front, lapis lazuli panels to the other sides, the central section with outset square section double columns with embricated bases to the angles, the glazed silvered sides engraved with mediaeval scenes, the rear with three-layer relief panel of figures in a wooded landscape, the lower section with silvered barometer dial, the sides engraved with entwined foliage and masks, DIAL: the silvered dial signed HUNT & ROSKELL, subsidiary dials below for days of week and date, MOVEMENT: the two train fusee movement with rack striking to coiled gong, under-slung platform lever escapement with cut bi-metallic balance wheel, the going train with maintaining power
15 ½ in. (39.4 cm.) high; 5 5/8 in. (14.2 cm.) wide; 5 5/8 in. (14.2 cm.) deep

Provenance

By family tradition: A gift from Queen Victoria to the Turkish ambassador, then gifted to the present owners' grandfather who was a jeweller to the Sultan of Turkey.

Special notice

These lots have been imported from outside the EU for sale using a Temporary Import regime. Import VAT is payable (at 5%) on the Hammer price. VAT is also payable (at 20%) on the buyer’s Premium on a VAT inclusive basis. When a buyer of such a lot has registered an EU address but wishes to export the lot or complete the import into another EU country, he must advise Christie's immediately after the auction.

Brought to you by

Carys Bingham

cbingham@christies.com +44 (0)20 7389 2350

Lot Essay

Thomas Cole (1800 - 1864) and his elder brother, James Ferguson Cole formed a partnership in 1821 and by the next year had begun to produce a small series of highly complicated silver hump-back travelling clocks. The hump-back carriage clock was originally designed and made fashionable by Breguet ten years earlier, lending support to the Cole brothers' theoretical apprenticeship with that esteemed maker.
By 1835 the brothers had gone their separate ways. By 1845 Thomas called himself A designer and maker of ornamental clocks and he began to make his now famous and popular series of exceptional quality clocks that appealed enormously to a rising class of Victorians made wealthy from the Industrial Revolution.
This clock shows many common features with other known Cole clocks; the architectural top section conforms with Hawkins' (op. cit.)item 43, the lower section with the similarly tiered construction of item 49.
The present clock is retailed by Hunt & Roskell (then one of London's leading jewellers), the company exhibited Cole's work at the 1851 Great Exhibition.

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
J.B. Hawkins, Thomas Cole & Victorian Clockmaking, Sydney, 1975.
D. Dale, 'Thomas Cole, Clockmaker', Antiquarian Horology, Vol. IX, No. 2, March 1975, pp. 186-194.

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