拍品專文
This Vulliamy pedestal, of pilaster form with projecting 'convex' centre, has golden ribbon-framed tablets of East Indian satinwood framing a monochrome-painted medallion depicting the sun-god Apollo in his chariot accompanied by the hours. The latter is taken from Boydell's 1785 publication of William Baillie's engraving after Guido Reni's celebrated painting in the Rospigliosi Palace, Rome, although the figure of Aurora that gives the original painting its name is cut off on this pedestal.
The case was designed to support an elegantly sculpted clock of a type invented in 1785 by Benjamin Vulliamy (d.1812). The clock supplied to Buckingham is dated 1787, the assumed date of this cabinet. The clock itself had become separated from this pedestal at Stowe and was also sold in the 1848 house sale, lot 1502, 'A beautiful French clock, of statuary marble and bisquit, with Genius and Science directing Youth - designed and executed by Vulliamy, 1787' £50 to Archibald.
Vulliamy had included a related clock, conceived after the architect Robert Adam's 'Roman' fashion, in a portrait that celebrated his industrialist's role in the encouragement of the Nation's Arts and Sciences. A further Grecian clock of the above 1785 pattern, with a winged 'Genius' celebrating the triumph of the Sciences, bears an inscription stating that it was 'designed' for George, Prince of Wales, later King George IV (C. Jaeger, Royal Clocks, London, 1983, pp. 117 and 119). Yet a third clock (bearing Vulliamy's number '236') standing within a glass dome has an almost identical 'commode' pedestal, which is likely to have served as an organ-case (see: R. Smith, 'Benjamin Vulliamy's painted satinwood clocks and pedestals', Apollo, June 1995, fig. 4).
This present pedestal was supplied for a 1787 clock commissioned by George Grenville, 1st Marquess of Buckingham (d.1813) for Stowe, Buckinghamshire. It is likely to have been made by the cabinet-maker Thomas Brownley (d.1811) and painted by the decorative artist John Bromley (d.1803), who traded as a 'Coach, Sign and House Painter' in Parker Street. In 1798 Brownley supplied a related satinwood organ-case with an 'oval of Apollo....' painted by Bromley for Vulliamy's clock numbered 315. (ibid., fig. 4).
The case was designed to support an elegantly sculpted clock of a type invented in 1785 by Benjamin Vulliamy (d.1812). The clock supplied to Buckingham is dated 1787, the assumed date of this cabinet. The clock itself had become separated from this pedestal at Stowe and was also sold in the 1848 house sale, lot 1502, 'A beautiful French clock, of statuary marble and bisquit, with Genius and Science directing Youth - designed and executed by Vulliamy, 1787' £50 to Archibald.
Vulliamy had included a related clock, conceived after the architect Robert Adam's 'Roman' fashion, in a portrait that celebrated his industrialist's role in the encouragement of the Nation's Arts and Sciences. A further Grecian clock of the above 1785 pattern, with a winged 'Genius' celebrating the triumph of the Sciences, bears an inscription stating that it was 'designed' for George, Prince of Wales, later King George IV (C. Jaeger, Royal Clocks, London, 1983, pp. 117 and 119). Yet a third clock (bearing Vulliamy's number '236') standing within a glass dome has an almost identical 'commode' pedestal, which is likely to have served as an organ-case (see: R. Smith, 'Benjamin Vulliamy's painted satinwood clocks and pedestals', Apollo, June 1995, fig. 4).
This present pedestal was supplied for a 1787 clock commissioned by George Grenville, 1st Marquess of Buckingham (d.1813) for Stowe, Buckinghamshire. It is likely to have been made by the cabinet-maker Thomas Brownley (d.1811) and painted by the decorative artist John Bromley (d.1803), who traded as a 'Coach, Sign and House Painter' in Parker Street. In 1798 Brownley supplied a related satinwood organ-case with an 'oval of Apollo....' painted by Bromley for Vulliamy's clock numbered 315. (ibid., fig. 4).