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Lot Essay
At the beginning of the 17th Century a Jesuit priest named Father Matteo Ricci took as a gift for the Emperor Wan Li a basic weight-driven quarter-striking clock with gilded dragons. The Emperor was aparently so pleased with his gift that he allowed Father Ricci to establish a mission in Peking.
Over the years the Chinese were educated in the mechanics of horology until it became a fascination. By about 1680 the Emperor K'ang Hsi established an Imperial watch and clock factory and the Emperor himself studied horology and even wrote a poem on a clock in his possession.
The clocks introduced to China were regarded as objects of curiosity and symbols of status, their timekeeping was of small interest for the Chinese day was in twelve 'double hours' and varied in length throughout the year.
By 1757 the port for foreign trade into China was limited to Canton where the Chinese thought they could control the influx of goods. It was a place where Western companies set up factories and trading posts to sell to the Chinese and to the in-coming Western traders to grease the official palm. Such were the wonderful oportunities open to foreign trade that very soon corruption set in and bribes became an important business factor. It was found that decorative musical enamel clocks or 'sing-songs' as they were called, were in much demand and so the London clock trade flourished with clever clockmakers such as James Cox, Charles Clay, Stephen Rimbault and Eardley Norton making more and more elaborate 'sing-songs'.
By the beginning of the 19th Century the trade in clocks began to decline and the Chinese began to manufacture their own clocks in Canton and indeed they are still being made in Shanghai to this day.
The present clock could well have been sent to China and come back after the second opium trade war in 1860 when the British and French armies looted the Summer Palace in retaliation for the poor treatment of British prisoners. The Palace 'booty' including the clocks were reputedly taken away in carts and auctioned off every day with the proceeds distributed, one-third to the officers and two-thirds to the men.
An almost identical clock to the present example still exists in the reception room at the Palace Museum in Peking and is illustrated (front cover) and discussed in an article by Alan H. Weaving, Clocks for the Emperor, op. cit.
Over the years the Chinese were educated in the mechanics of horology until it became a fascination. By about 1680 the Emperor K'ang Hsi established an Imperial watch and clock factory and the Emperor himself studied horology and even wrote a poem on a clock in his possession.
The clocks introduced to China were regarded as objects of curiosity and symbols of status, their timekeeping was of small interest for the Chinese day was in twelve 'double hours' and varied in length throughout the year.
By 1757 the port for foreign trade into China was limited to Canton where the Chinese thought they could control the influx of goods. It was a place where Western companies set up factories and trading posts to sell to the Chinese and to the in-coming Western traders to grease the official palm. Such were the wonderful oportunities open to foreign trade that very soon corruption set in and bribes became an important business factor. It was found that decorative musical enamel clocks or 'sing-songs' as they were called, were in much demand and so the London clock trade flourished with clever clockmakers such as James Cox, Charles Clay, Stephen Rimbault and Eardley Norton making more and more elaborate 'sing-songs'.
By the beginning of the 19th Century the trade in clocks began to decline and the Chinese began to manufacture their own clocks in Canton and indeed they are still being made in Shanghai to this day.
The present clock could well have been sent to China and come back after the second opium trade war in 1860 when the British and French armies looted the Summer Palace in retaliation for the poor treatment of British prisoners. The Palace 'booty' including the clocks were reputedly taken away in carts and auctioned off every day with the proceeds distributed, one-third to the officers and two-thirds to the men.
An almost identical clock to the present example still exists in the reception room at the Palace Museum in Peking and is illustrated (front cover) and discussed in an article by Alan H. Weaving, Clocks for the Emperor, op. cit.