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Lot Essay
The tiered tower-form case is centred by a white enamel Roman dial with gilt hands and sweep centre seconds, surmounted by a painted landscape arch, Pan-pipe mounts, and floral canted angles. A domed hexagonal pavilion above houses an automaton of an official opening a scroll reading Tianguan cifu (‘prosperity bestowed by the Celestial Official’), above the dome featuring rotating stars and a spinning paste-set pineapple-form finial.
A lower aperture reveals automaton figures of the Eight Immortals revolving around Shoulao and attendants, above spinning glass rods simulating a waterfall and a paste-set star flower. The case features red silk-backed sound frets on the sides, caryatid angle mounts above rampant lions, and an openwork base. The twin fusee rear-wound movement strikes the hour on a bell and drives the automaton mechanism along with a European musical movement playing eight tunes with automatic change, on twelve bells with twenty-two hammers at hour twelve, three, six, and nine.
Mechanical horology was introduced to the Chinese court by Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) in the late 16th century, sparking an enduring imperial fascination with complex clocks and automata. By the reign of Emperor Kangxi (1662–1722), the Imperial Clock Workshop was established within the palace, operating alongside prominent regional manufacturing centres, most notably Guangzhou. Following the 1757 edict restricting foreign trade exclusively to Guangzhou, the port city became the primary hub for importing European movements and producing luxurious tribute clocks for the Qing court.
The present clock exemplifies the collaborative horology produced during the 18th century. Unlike European domestic clocks of the period, a sweep centre-seconds hand was virtually mandatory on tribute clocks to provide immediate visual confirmation that the mechanism was ‘alive.’ Because the central seconds hand blocked front-winding apertures on the dial, movements were specifically engineered to be wound from the rear. Furthermore, the dense embellishment of brightly coloured paste gems directly reflects the celebrated lapidary traditions of Guangzhou clockmakers, as documented in Palace Museum research on Guangdong tribute clocks by Yang Boda. The seamless integration of a European musical movement with Daoist automaton iconography highlights the refined synthesis of Western mechanical innovation and traditional Chinese auspicious symbolism favored by the imperial court.
Compare a related automaton clock of similar pavilion form and crowned with a pineapple finial in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, collection no.: gu00182703 (fig. 1). Further compare an almost identical musical and automaton clock, formerly in the collection of The Nezu Museum, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 27 May 2008, lot 1514 (price realised HKD17,127,500) (fig. 2).
A lower aperture reveals automaton figures of the Eight Immortals revolving around Shoulao and attendants, above spinning glass rods simulating a waterfall and a paste-set star flower. The case features red silk-backed sound frets on the sides, caryatid angle mounts above rampant lions, and an openwork base. The twin fusee rear-wound movement strikes the hour on a bell and drives the automaton mechanism along with a European musical movement playing eight tunes with automatic change, on twelve bells with twenty-two hammers at hour twelve, three, six, and nine.
Mechanical horology was introduced to the Chinese court by Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) in the late 16th century, sparking an enduring imperial fascination with complex clocks and automata. By the reign of Emperor Kangxi (1662–1722), the Imperial Clock Workshop was established within the palace, operating alongside prominent regional manufacturing centres, most notably Guangzhou. Following the 1757 edict restricting foreign trade exclusively to Guangzhou, the port city became the primary hub for importing European movements and producing luxurious tribute clocks for the Qing court.
The present clock exemplifies the collaborative horology produced during the 18th century. Unlike European domestic clocks of the period, a sweep centre-seconds hand was virtually mandatory on tribute clocks to provide immediate visual confirmation that the mechanism was ‘alive.’ Because the central seconds hand blocked front-winding apertures on the dial, movements were specifically engineered to be wound from the rear. Furthermore, the dense embellishment of brightly coloured paste gems directly reflects the celebrated lapidary traditions of Guangzhou clockmakers, as documented in Palace Museum research on Guangdong tribute clocks by Yang Boda. The seamless integration of a European musical movement with Daoist automaton iconography highlights the refined synthesis of Western mechanical innovation and traditional Chinese auspicious symbolism favored by the imperial court.
Compare a related automaton clock of similar pavilion form and crowned with a pineapple finial in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, collection no.: gu00182703 (fig. 1). Further compare an almost identical musical and automaton clock, formerly in the collection of The Nezu Museum, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 27 May 2008, lot 1514 (price realised HKD17,127,500) (fig. 2).