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Lot Essay
COMPARATIVE MUSICAL AND AUTOMATON CLOCKS BY HENRY BORRELL
This palatial ormolu automaton clock is instantly recognisable as being from the oeuvre of the London clock and watch maker Henry Borrell whose superb guilloché enamel decorated example of the same design holds the world auction record for an English clock (sold, Christie's, Hong Kong, Magnificent Clocks for the Chinese Imperial Court from the Nezu Museum, 27 May 2008, lot 1511, HK$36,167,500 / £2,355,000).
The present clock has been rediscovered in a French collection and shares many of the typical Borrell attributes from a small but distinctive group of automaton and musical clocks by this esteemed maker, these include:
1 - The Palace Museum clock, Beijing; with conforming vase finial and swept top, openwork volute scrolls and applied with a bird to the plinth, sailing ships automaton (Lu Yangzhen (chief editor), Timepieces Collected by the Qing Emperors in the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1995, p. 100).
2 - Borrell clock with Derek Roberts, 1994; with cone finial and swept top, straight sides and applied with birds, sailing ships automaton (D. Roberts, Mystery, Novelty and Fantasy Clocks, Atglen, 1999, p. 188, fig. 15-27).
3 - Borrell clock; with vase finial and domed top, straight sides, gilt gallery to plinth, sailing ships automaton (sold, Christie's, New York, 29 October 1990, lot 22; and subsequently; Bonhams, Hong Kong, 26 November 2019, lot 877, HK$3,875,625 / £385,327).
4 - Unsigned clock; vase finial and swept top, openwork volute scrolls, figural procession and waterfall automaton (sold, Christie's, New York, 28 April 1990, lot 13).
5 – The Robersons Gallery Borrell clock; with Catherine-wheel finial and domed top, straight sides, later silvered gallery and openwork dolphin feet, sailing ships automaton (sold, Christie's, London, 5 July 2012, lot 36, £735,650).
6/7 – The Macartney Borrell clocks; a pair of enamel decorated clocks reputedly made for Lord Macartney and presented by him to the Emperor Qianlong in 1793. Each with Catherine-wheel finial and swept top, openwork volute scrolls, sailing ships automaton (one sold, Christie's, London, 6 July 2001, lot 39; the second sold Christie's, Nezu Museum (op. cit.).
Borrell also made a series of related smaller musical and automaton table clocks (for example Christie's, Hong Kong, 27 May 2008, lot 1515).
These clocks (apart from No.4 above) share the key design feature of sailing ships to the automaton apertures; a number of painted metal ships are attached to two fine watch chains and move in opposing directions between rotating glass rods to symbolise the trade between East and West.
HENRY BORRELL
John Henry Borrell (1757-1840) was a Swiss Huguenot clock and watch maker born in Couvet near Neuchâtel (as Jean Henri Borel). He migrated to London where he married Kitty Howe on 7th May 1791 at St Dunstan-in-the-West, Fleet Street. His address is recorded at 8 Aldersgate, later 5 Wilderness Row and he was naturalised by Act of Parliament in 1805. Borrell was one of a number of English clockmakers towards the end of the 18th century whose work was strongly connected to the Export market of both the Near and Far East. His son Henry Perigal Borrell (1795-1851), merchant and numismatist, worked in Turkey as agent for his father.