FRANCIS PERIGAL, LONDON, CIRCA 1790

COMPARATIVE CLOCKS AT THE CHINESE COURT
The presence of the kneeling adolescent figure at the center of this clock’s iconography gives a good indication of the strength of trade between English clockmakers and members of the Chinese Court at this period. The scroll expressing auspicious wishes for achieving success in academia may well have been a specific commission, possibly by an official wishing to curry Imperial favor. The symbolism of these clocks made them popular almost before they were understood as timekeepers. Catherine Pagani (Eastern Magnificence and European Ingenuity, University of Michigan, 2001, p. 96) cites three young princes coming to admire the European clocks brought by the Macartney embassy and who openly admitted they did not know their purpose.

A Chinese-made clock from the Qianlong or Jiaqing period, emulating the same design features as the present example was sold, Christie’s, London, 22 January 2009, lot 160, the top with balustraded gallery and conforming kneeling automaton figure also holding a scroll with Chinese character inscription ‘The first officer of the Court’.

The overall style of this clock with the pagoda or cupola top was popular at the Court and several examples survive in the Palace Museum collections: a clock by William Story has an openwork portico with automaton figures (Lu Yangzhen [chief editor], Timepieces Collected by the Qing Emperors in the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1995, p. 51); a London made clock by John Taylor has an enclosed pergola with an enamel roof (Yangzhen, op cit. p. 125); and another by Thomas Hunter has an openwork portico enclosing a double-gourd vase (Yangzhen, op cit. p. 134).

The dial craftsman of the present clock was almost certainly responsible for the magnificent near pair of gothic cased automaton clocks produced by the Perigal workshop: one in the Palace Museum collection, (Yangzhen, op cit. p. 198); the other returned to Europe from China by the Chinese born Swiss dealer/collector Gustave Loup (1876-1961) and later sold, Christie’s, London, 13 December 2000, lot 84; Sotheby’s, New York, 27 October 2010, lot 51; and Sotheby’s, London, 7 November 2012, lot 116 (I. White, The Majesty of the Chinese-Market Watch, London, 2019, pp. 293-4, figs. 7, 13). They share with this clock the same dial layout, with subsidiary indications at the lower edge and a similar rural automaton scene to the arch, albeit lacking the glass waterfall, the silvered ground also with the same style of monochrome enamel inlay.

THE PERIGAL FAMILY WORKSHOP
The Threadneedle Street, Royal Exchange, workshop was started by Francis Perigal (I) (b. 1701 - d. 1767), he was a third generation Huguenot refugee, the son of Gideon, a goldsmith at the sign of the Cross Keys in St. Martin’s Lane. Francis was himself apprenticed to a goldsmith, H. Duck, in 1715 and made a freeman in 1741, he worked as a watchmaker and was made Master of the Clockmakers Company in 1756. He was joined by his son Francis (II) (b. 1734 - d. 1824). Francis (II) was apprenticed to his father in 1748 and made free in 1756. Francis (III) (b. 1764 - d. 1843) was in turn apprenticed to his father in 1778 and made free in 1786, he too was elected Master of the Clockmakers in 1806. It is likely that this clock was produced under the auspices of both Francis (II) and (III). The business continued until 1843. There were also numerous other Perigals involved in the horological trade in London and often confused with those above including a Francis S. Perigal (d. 1824), made free in 1781 who was appointed Watchmaker to the King, relationship unknown to I, II, and III, working in New Bond Street 1780-1802. Further details of the family are recorded in Some account of the Perigal Family, published London 1887.

EUROPEAN TRADE TO THE CHINESE MARKET
European clock and watchmakers had been exporting horological wares and automaton to China from the 17th century, with the Jesuit priest Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) famously using clocks to gain access to the Imperial Court in 1601. The trade gained far greater significance during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor (1736-1795), who amassed possibly the greatest collection of clocks and watches ever assembled. This period saw the most prolific production for workshops such as the Perigals, and others such as Henry Borrell and James Cox, all creating extraordinary works of art containing horology, music and automata. George Staunton, secretary and minister plenipotentiary to Lord Macartney's embassy to China in 1793 wrote: 'Extraordinary pieces of ingenious and complicated mechanism...were exported annually to a considerable amount. Many of these costly articles, obtained by the Mandarines, under promise of protection from their inferiors, ultimately found their way into the palaces of the Emperor and his Ministers, in the hope of securing the favour of their superiors' (quoted in Pagani, p. 102). By the time of Macartney's visit in 1793 the number of clocks in the Imperial collection was astonishing. A visit to the palace at Jehol revealed that the forty or fifty palace buildings he visited were 'all furnished...with every kind of European toys and sing-songs; with spheres, orreries, clocks and musical automatons...' (Pagani, p. 83).