IN THE MANNER OF JAMES COX, LATE 18TH CENTURY

Details

A GEORGE III ORMOLU TIMEPIECE TABLE CABINET
IN THE MANNER OF JAMES COX, LATE 18TH CENTURY
The white enamel dial with paste-set bezel mounted within a garland supported by an eagle within naturalistic fronds and raised on two paste-set bands, the square section cabinet below engraved overall with birds, insects and foliage, each side with a pair of doors, the front enclosing four silk-lined drawers, the lower drawer fitted with a compass, the sides and rear opening to reveal later panels, raised overall on four elephants above the stepped plinth base incorporating two further drawers, the watch movement with chain fusee and engraved backcock, signed 'Wm. Bird, London' and numbered '2800'
11 ¼ in. (28.5 cm.) high; 5 ¼ in. (13.4 cm.) wide; 5 ¼ in. (13.4 cm.) deep

Special notice

These lots have been imported from outside the EU or, if the UK has withdrawn from the EU without an agreed transition deal, from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice. Cancellation under the EU Consumer Rights Directive may apply to this lot. Please see here for further information.

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Lot Essay

This George III ormolu timepiece table cabinet, in the manner of the London jeweller, gold/silversmith and automata supplier, the pre-eminent and entrepreneurial James Cox (c. 1723-1800) of 103 Shoe Lane, London, is possibly the pair to one sold Sotheby’s, New York, 18 October 2006, lot 355 ($66,000 inc. premium); the eagle heads face each other, and the watch dials appear similar although no watch maker was recorded in 2006. The opening doors to the sides and back of the present piece originally contained erotic panels, but have now been replaced with more modern etched panels. The present timepiece table cabinet rests on four exotic elephant feet – a model Cox termed ‘the Asiatick taste’ - zoomorphic figures that are very close to those customarily used by Cox. Two models of elephants reoccur, one with an upward trunk, as on this example, and on two further examples; a Cox timepiece table cabinet in the Gilbert Collection at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (I. White, English Clocks for the Eastern Markets, Ticehurst, 2012, p. 168, fig. 7.5a) and a musical automaton clock illustrated R. Smith, ‘James Cox (c. 1723-1800: A Revised Biography’, The Burlington Magazine, June, 2000, p. 356, fig. 19). The other model of elephant has a downward trunk, such as the one sold ‘Classic Art Evening Sale: Antiquity to 20th Century’, Christie’s, London, 29 July 2020, lot 53 (£443,250 inc. premium). A timepiece of this model was offered at Bonhams, London, 18 November 2008, lot 14.

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