Vulliamy No. 206A George III ormolu-mounted white marble and Derby biscuit porcelain mantel timepiece. Circa 1786

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VA… Read more

'When you have done broiling at Ascot you shall cool yrself at Frogmore, where it looks very ruralistic at present'. So wrote Queen Charlotte to Lord Harcourt in 1793, the year after George III had bought the house and grounds for her. In 1790 she acquired the adjoining cottage and garden, which she named Amelia Cottage after her youngest daughter, as a place where she could persue her botanical studies and have a private garden when living at Windsor. Even then privacy was a problem for the Royal family. The architect James Wyatt was employed to make extensive alterations to Frogmore creating the colonnade and pavilions and later in 1803 he added the bowed wings. Queen Charlotte's eldest and unmarried daughter, Princess Augusta lived in the house until 1840 and when she died Queen Victoria gave it to her mother the Duchess of Kent. On her death in 1861 the Queen enjoyed the gardens and later King George V and Queen Mary also enjoyed the tranquility Frogmore afforded. The house still has a peaceful and unpretentious feel and is still a Royal residence but is now open to public viewing during the summer period when the Royal Family are at Balmoral.

Vulliamy No. 206 A George III ormolu-mounted white marble and Derby biscuit porcelain mantel timepiece. Circa 1786

Details

Vulliamy No. 206

A George III ormolu-mounted white marble and Derby biscuit porcelain mantel timepiece. Circa 1786
The case with triple-stepped crepidoma white marble plinth supporting a central fluted truncated marble column on an ormolu socle signed Vulliamy LONDON No. 206 and impressed with a casting mark BWC on the inside, the column surmounted by a segment of fluted marble and flanked by two draped biscuit porcelain putti, one holding an Archimedian screw, the other hoisting a further segment of column on a pulley system, the steps scattered with well modelled ormolu mathematical, architectural and masons' instruments including a mallet and chisel, a folding rule, scribers, a stack of books, callipers, a protractor, a hammer, dividers and parchment scrolls one inscribed Fugit irreparabile tempus virgl. (Virgil's quotation Time flies, never to be regained), the four in (10 cm.) white enamel circular dial with gilt Roman chapters and gilt dot minute markers, fine foliate pierced and chased ormolu hands, enclosed by an ormolu beaded bezel with ormolu pendulum regulation knob above, the narrow fusee and gut timepiece movement with maintaining power, screwed collets to the 'scape wheel and pallets, half deadbeat escapement, rise-and-fall regulation, pendulum with rhomboid ebony rod and heavy gilt-brass bob numbered 206, the backplate signed Vulliamy London, No. 206 within a well engraved floral cartouche
15 3/8 in. (39 cm.) high

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis

Lot Essay

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE
Timothy Clifford, Vulliamy Clocks and British Sculpture, Apollo, October 1990, pp.226-237
Timothy Clifford, New evidence concerning Vulliamy clocks and Duesbury porcelain, Derby porcelain International Society, Journal II, 1991, p.35-52
Alison Kelly, A Clockmaker's Taste for Ceramics, Country Life, 15 June, 1967, pp.1526-1528
Roger Smith, Benjamin Vulliamy's library: A Collection of Neo-Classical Design Sources, Burlington Magazine, June, 1999, pp.328-337
Roger Smith, Benjamin Vulliamy's Painted Satinwood Clocks and Pedestals, Apollo, June, 1995, pp.25-33
Geoffrey de Bellaigue, Samuel Parker and the Vulliamy's, Purveyors of Gilt Bronze, Burlington Magazine, January, 1997, pp.26-37

This recently discovered clock belongs to a small group of ormolu and biscuit porcelain ornamental timepieces produced by King George III's leading clockmaker Benjamin Vulliamy of Pall Mall, London. These fantastic and whimsical clocks combined the best of Neo-Classical taste with the most refined craftsmanship available at the end of the 18th Century. For these ambitious projects Vulliamy enlisted William Duesbury and his son, also William, of the Derby porcelain factory exclusively to produce biscuit figures just for these clocks. The design for the putti are recorded as modelled by Charles Peart (1759-98) between 30 October 1789 and January 1787. Peart, a Royal Academician and Gold Medal winner, re-modelled John Deare's original designs of naked figures and added drapes for modesty, to conform with the moral standards at the time.

From the surviving Vulliamy workbooks (clock numbers 297-496) it can be clearly seen that many of the components for Vulliamy's clocks were contracted out. Although No. 206 pre-dates the surviving workbooks, all the outworkers listed below regularly supplied Vulliamy so that the following attributions may be made with great certainty;
J. Day - The marble
Bullock - The movement
Long & Drew - The Dial
Culver - Graving the hands and mounts
Duesbury - The two biscuit figures
Crockett - The gilding
Haas - The brass ring
Amedroz - Engraving the plate
Barrow - The brass work

THE FREQUENCY OF COLUMN & TWIN PUTTI CLOCKS

Records show that there are only three examples extant of this model with two putti flanking a column
No. 206 The present and most complete clock with two female putti
No. 240 The collection of the Hon. Mrs Nellie Ionides, sold Sotheby's, Buxted Park, Sussex, 24 May, 1971, lot 13, to Asprey
No. 258 The Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, originally bought for the Duke of Clarence, Clarence House, subsequently moved to Windsor Castle and now in the Green Room at Frogmore House, Berkshire

(Another similar but composite clock is numbered 282. This clock has a movement by Jump and the two putti are made from Jasperware rather than biscuit porcelain. Its block and tackle pulley system are now lacking.)

More from MAGNIFICENT CLOCKS

View All