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Lot Essay
This handsome figurative clock-case is designed in the George III French/Grecian fashion promoted by the court architect and furniture 'connoisseur' Sir William Chambers (d.1796), and relates to his 1780 clock design for the Society of Antiquaries' Somerset House rooms (J. Harris and M. Snodin, Sir William Chambers, London, 1997, fig 254). The figures can be related to those of the Earl of Chatham's Westminster Abbey monument, which the sculptor John Bacon, R.A. (d.1799) designed in 1778, at a period that he was executing sculpture for the embellishment of Chambers' Somerset House. He had previously designed related figures of the Seasons for Champion's Bristol porcelain factory in the early 1770s, when he first joined Mrs Eleanor Coade's Artificial Stone Manufactory at Lambeth (T. Clifford, John Bacon and the Manufacturers, Apollo, October 1985, pp.288- 303 fig 2).
The 1784 Descriptive Catalogue of COADE'S Artificial Stone Manufactory lists under Section XXVII 'Pieces of Furniture and various ornaments, no.525 , Clock-case, with two sitting Figures, Spring and Autumn; an Eagle on the Top, 1ft. 5¼ins long'. Alison Kelly (Mrs Coade's Stone, Upton-upon-Severn, 1990) mentions that the clock bears a resemblance to a similar design by Adam and Vulliamy and sculpted by John Bacon for George III. The only other Coade clock case, which is an oval plaque with Father Time, is not listed in the above catalogue but is listed in the publication of items in Coade's Gallery. An example of this model was most recently sold Sotheby's, 22 May 2002, lot 544, it was dated 1794.
The 1784 Descriptive Catalogue of COADE'S Artificial Stone Manufactory lists under Section XXVII 'Pieces of Furniture and various ornaments, no.525 , Clock-case, with two sitting Figures, Spring and Autumn; an Eagle on the Top, 1ft. 5¼ins long'. Alison Kelly (Mrs Coade's Stone, Upton-upon-Severn, 1990) mentions that the clock bears a resemblance to a similar design by Adam and Vulliamy and sculpted by John Bacon for George III. The only other Coade clock case, which is an oval plaque with Father Time, is not listed in the above catalogue but is listed in the publication of items in Coade's Gallery. An example of this model was most recently sold Sotheby's, 22 May 2002, lot 544, it was dated 1794.