James Cox. A fine and rare 18K gold, enamel and paste-set spyglass with watch

SIGNED JA. COX, LONDON, CIRCA 1775

細節

James Cox. A fine and rare 18K gold, enamel and paste-set spyglass with watch
Signed Ja. Cox, London, circa 1775
With gilt-finished verge movement, engraved and pierced cock, chain fusée, the white enamel dial with Roman numerals, outer Arabic five minute indication, paste-set hands, ruby-coloured paste-set bezel, in chased scroll and floral decorated case, all hinged over the spyglass objective, the barrel decorated with fabric-style polychrome enamel stripes, overlaid with fine chased gold openwork rocaille decoration depicting flowers and griffins, six cartouches with blue enamel basse taille goats, a wolf, a peacock and a heron, all on engine-turned ground and surrounded by a green and white enamel border, the eyepiece with a sliding shutter, dial signed
235 mm. overall length

來源

Masterpieces from the Time Museum

拍品專文

James Cox, who had been established as a jeweller and maker of automata or 'toys of the heart' since 1749, was renowned for his complicated musical and automaton clocks and highly decorated scent bottles and table nécessaires with watches.

Such exotic objets de vertu were retailed by fashionable London 'toy-shops' or museums, such as the 'Spring Garden Museum' which Cox launched in the 1760s. With the help of his son John Henry Cox, he opened a branch of his manufactory in the British Compound at Canton in the early 1780s, which flourished for several years.

The date of James Cox's death is thought to be in late 1791/early 1792.