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Lot Essay
The brother of a clockmaker, Richard Chater was apprenticed in 1774 and Free of the Clockmakers' Company in 1781. In 1803 he was appointed a Liveryman. He died in 1811.
The design of this clock, with its Egyptian pharaonic busts, owes much to the prevailing fashions of the Regency period. Furniture influenced by Rome, Greece and Egypt was very much à la mode and many fashionable London buyers would have wanted their clocks to show the current taste.
A revival of interest in Egypt can be dated back to Napoleon's expedition of 1798, which lead to the publication of Dominique-Vivant Denon's Voyage dans la basse et la haute Egypte in 1802, published in English the same year. Furniture in the Egyptian style was first shown by Sheraton in his Encyclopedia (1804-6), whilst George Smith's pattern book A collection of Designs for Household Furniture and Interior Decoration (1808) led to its increased popularity.
The design of this clock, with its Egyptian pharaonic busts, owes much to the prevailing fashions of the Regency period. Furniture influenced by Rome, Greece and Egypt was very much à la mode and many fashionable London buyers would have wanted their clocks to show the current taste.
A revival of interest in Egypt can be dated back to Napoleon's expedition of 1798, which lead to the publication of Dominique-Vivant Denon's Voyage dans la basse et la haute Egypte in 1802, published in English the same year. Furniture in the Egyptian style was first shown by Sheraton in his Encyclopedia (1804-6), whilst George Smith's pattern book A collection of Designs for Household Furniture and Interior Decoration (1808) led to its increased popularity.