A GEORGE III BRASS-MOUNTED EBONISED STRIKING, MUSICAL AND AUTOMATON TABLE CLOCK

LATE 18TH CENTURY

Details

A GEORGE III BRASS-MOUNTED EBONISED STRIKING, MUSICAL AND AUTOMATON TABLE CLOCK
LATE 18TH CENTURY
CASE: with rotunda top centred by a figure of Britannia, vase finials, the pediment sides with cast sound frets, further foliate cast frets and handles to the sides below, all angles with caryatids trailing foliage, on scroll feet, the case possibly formerly painted DIAL: painted plate, the centre re-signed 'GEO. MARGETTS/LONDON', subsidiaries for chime/silent and six tune selection ('Dance, Song, Minuet, Hornpipe, Song, Jigg'), chapter rings with repainted inscriptions, blued steel hands, the arch with painted scene of carousing couples, with automaton dancer and violinist MOVEMENT: seven pillars, triple gut fusees, with verge escapement, hour strike on bell and music on eleven bells with eleven hammers, 4 in. pinned music barrel, strike/music repeat to the sides, the back plate engraved with foliate scrolls
30¾ in. (78 cm.) high; 15 in. (38 cm.) wide; 8 in. (20 cm.) deep

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Lot Essay

Clocks of closely related design but with cut glass cupolas and columns (to the main case and to the top) are illustrated in R.C.R. Barder, The Georgian Bracket Clock 1714-1830, Woodbridge, 1993, pp. 161-162, pls. 22 and 25. See also pl. 23. A tortoiseshell-veneered variant of this model with brass upper columns and veneered cupola similar to this clock is illustrated on p. 168, pl. V/12. Interestingly, all these examples were made for the Turkish market and had enamel dials. Although the chapter rings on the present clock are unusual for having painted (rather than engraved) inscriptions there is no sign of them having been changed; it may also be noted that the dancing automaton figures on this clock (an unusual feature) would not be found on an example for the Turkish market. This clock seems therefore to have been made as a domestic market variant of a style popularly used for the export market.

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