A GEORGE III ORMOLU-MOUNTED, DERBY BISCUIT PORCELAIN AND WHITE MARBLE 'COLUMN' TIMEPIECE MANTEL CLOCK
A GEORGE III ORMOLU-MOUNTED, DERBY BISCUIT PORCELAIN AND WHITE MARBLE 'COLUMN' TIMEPIECE MANTEL CLOCK
A GEORGE III ORMOLU-MOUNTED, DERBY BISCUIT PORCELAIN AND WHITE MARBLE 'COLUMN' TIMEPIECE MANTEL CLOCK
A GEORGE III ORMOLU-MOUNTED, DERBY BISCUIT PORCELAIN AND WHITE MARBLE 'COLUMN' TIMEPIECE MANTEL CLOCK
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A GEORGE III ORMOLU-MOUNTED, DERBY BISCUIT PORCELAIN AND WHITE MARBLE 'COLUMN' TIMEPIECE MANTEL CLOCK

BENJAMIN VULLIAMY, CIRCA 1785

Details
A GEORGE III ORMOLU-MOUNTED, DERBY BISCUIT PORCELAIN AND WHITE MARBLE 'COLUMN' TIMEPIECE MANTEL CLOCK
BENJAMIN VULLIAMY, CIRCA 1785
The case modelled as a fluted column on a crepidoma base with a segment of fluted column to the top, flanked on one side by a putto mid-stride holding a mallet and on the other by a Campana vase with removable cover decorated with vines on a scroll, the stepped marble plinth decorated with various surveying tools and a pile of books on a scroll engraved with 'Tempus fugit irreparibile Virg.' (a quote from Virgil's Georgics - 'Time flies, never to be regained'), the base signed 'Vulliamy London No. 184', the white enamel dial with gilt Roman chapters, dot minute markers and pierced gilt hands, the narrow fusee timepiece movement joined by five tapered pillars, with half dead-beat escapement, rise and fall regulation and ebony pendulum rod with weighted brass bob, the backplate engraved 'Vulliamy / London / No. 184'
15 in. (38 cm.) high; 12 in. (30 cm.) wide; 8 in. (20 cm.) deep
Literature
COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
A. Kelly, 'A Clockmaker's Taste for Ceramics', Country Life, 15 June 1967, pp. 1526-1528.
T. Clifford, 'Vulliamy Clocks and British Sculpture', Apollo, October 1990, pp. 235-238, fig. 10.
T. Clifford, 'New evidence concerning Vulliamy clocks and Duesbury porcelain', Derby Porcelain International Society Journal, II, 1991, pp. 35-52.

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Amelia Walker
Amelia Walker Director, Specialist Head of Private & Iconic Collections

Lot Essay

The collaboration between the Royal Clockmakers Vulliamy and the Derby porcelain factory has been documented by Sir Timothy Clifford (T. Clifford, 'New evidence concerning Vulliamy clocks and Duesbury porcelain', Derby Porcelain International Society Journal, II, 1991, pp. 35-52). The present clock representing the 'Genius of Architecture contemplating the transience of Time' is one of only a small number of known clocks of this type. It includes those numbered or just dated, such as the present clock: the earliest dated 1783; another, numbered '175'; number '189' (The Dukes of Devonshire, Chatsworth House); and two dated '1787' (Christie's, New York, 20 January 1996, lot 511 and Sotheby's, London, 17 May 2022, lot 47).

From the surviving Vulliamy workbooks (clock numbers 297-496) it is evident that many of the component parts for these clocks were subcontracted to specialist workmen. Although No. 184 pre-dates the workbooks, most of the outworkers listed regularly supplied Vulliamy, so the following attributions may be made;
J. Day -The marble
Bullock - The movement
Long & Drew -The Dial
Culver - Graving the hands and mounts
Duesbury - The biscuit figure
Crockett - The gilding
Haas - The brass ring
Amedroz - Engraving the plate
Barrow - The brass work
Additionally, the Derby figure of the putto walking with arm outstretched is attributed to having been first modelled by the sculptor John Deare (1759-98).

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