A highly important George III ormolu-mounted, enamel inset and paste-ornamented table clock with a Chinese automaton movement, the enamels by W. H. Craft, the cover of the timepiece signed ‘W. H. Craft invented 1773 finished 1796’

the timepiece movement with a 3½ inch white enamel dial, gold hands, center seconds, fusee and chain, deadbeat escapement and fixed kidney-shaped bob pendulum, the circular back-plate engraved with scrolling leaves and flowers, in a drum case, the interior of the circular hinged cover signed W. H. Craft Invented 1773 finished 1796, the exterior with an enamel plaque depicting classical figures of a bearded man and a young girl bearing a garland of flowers before a statue of Minerva, patroness of institutions of learning and the arts, sculpture and painting unsigned, surmounted by an ormolu woven basket encircled by a snake and with scrolled leaves, containing fruit and flowers represented by a domed enamel cover painted in polychrome colors and supporting a white and blue paste-inset pineapple issuing from gilt leaves, above a later beveled heart-shaped mirror within a scrolled foliate frame fronting a conforming case on scrolled supports with pendant swags and foliate scrolls, each inset with small gilt-ornamented blue enamel plaques, the sides pierced with trellis-work and ornamented with musical trophies within berried laurel wreaths, containing a three-train heart-shaped musical and striking fusee movement, sounding the quarters and hours on three bells, the music released at the hour or at will and playing one of two tunes on a further eight bells with ten hammers, the heart-shaped back-plate engraved with foliate scrolls, birds and a basket of flowers, the conforming back cover cast and chased with foliate scrolls and husks and centered by an oval enamel plaque decorated in polychrome with a figure of a seated lady writing within an interior with columns, a pedimented doorway to the rear and drapery to the right before a bust of Minerva and a table globe turned to show the Americas, to the left a scrolled parchment inscribed North America discovered 1497/Ack…ledged Independent 1783, signed and dated 1786, supported on a rectangular base with turret corners containing a fusee and chain mechanism controlled by a lever from the music train and operating four white and blue paste-inset pineapple finials revolving above ormolu vases, the molded bodies cast with foliate and fluted ornament supported on the corner turrets, each with an inset enamel plaque depicting a classical female figure within architectural settings with columns and arches, with landscapes in the background, the first figure representing Art holding paint brushes and an oval panel with a picture of cupid, with books and a scrolled parchment at her feet, signed and dated 1785, the second representing Plenty, holding a fringed cloth filled with fruit, with a cornucopia at her feet, signed and dated 17?, the third representing Love, the figure holding a dove, with a bow, a quiver of arrows and flaming torch at her feet, signed and dated 178?, the fourth representing Music, the figure holding a lyre, a tambourine, two drums, a pipe and a sheet of music at her feet, signed and dated 1785, at her feet, the central panel of the front of the base with an oval rib tied laurel wreath enclosing a Chinese mirrored panel centered by a pink paste set flower radiating twisted glass rods revolving in sequence with the pineapple finials, and with gilt-ornamented blue enamel inset corners, the reverse side with a similarly decorated door enclosing the Chinese mechanism and with an oval enamel panel decorated with a scene from classical mythology illustrating the Judgment of Paris, signed and dated 1782, the sides similarly inset with allegorical oval enamel plaques, one with a female seated before a wall fountain and holding doves, signed and dated ?, the other with a female in a pastoral landscape with sheep and holding a wreath of flowers, signed and dated 1783, the stand fitted with seven small drawers, each with translucent blue or purple enamel panel over engine turning and overlaid with gilt flowerheads, above foliate moldings, the Chinese bracket feet ornamented with overlaid petals and foliage and supported on scrolled toes.               

The Collection of Gustave Loup, Geneva, purchased in China, circa 1925.

The Collection of Mme. Turler and Mme. Hug, sold Sotheby’s, Zurich, November 16, 1977, lot 261.

Purchased by the British Rail Pension Fund by whom sold, Sotheby’s, London, October 5, 1990, lot 137.

Partridge Fine Arts, London.

Acquired from the above, 1990.

Sotheby’s, Art at Auction 1990-1991, 1991, p. 266.

Arthur W. J. G. Ord-Hume, The Musical Clock, 1995, p. 287, pl. XIII/3-4.

Tardy, Clocks the World Over, Paris, 1982, pp. 364-5, pl. LXXI.

The life and career of William Hopkins Craft is still somewhat confused as in some records his name is shown as ‘Croft’, and the signature on some enamels attributed to him, particularly those before 1782, omit the initial ‘H’. If one disregards this confusion, Craft appears to have been born c. 1730/35 and was possibly the brother of Thomas Craft who was a painter at the Bow porcelain factory. He is identified by Aubrey J Toppin in his paper in The English Ceramic Circle as being born in Tottenham, London, marrying there on the 15 September 1757 to Sarah Wood, possibly entering the Royal Academy School in 1777 at the age of thirty nine. Before this he is recorded in 1768 as being in partnership with David Rhodes working for Josiah Wedgwood, and possibly before this working in Paris. ‘W. Craft’ exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1774 and 1781 and again from 1794-1795, again raising the question as to whether there were two enamellers called Craft, possibly related, with the respective initials W and W.H. (see Foskett, op. cit.). On June 10, 1810 he was admitted to the Charter House as ‘Mr. Croft, Pensioner’, Charter House being a charitable institution, a pensioner being a poor brother. In 1811, The Gentleman’s Magazine records that ‘Aged 80, Mr. Croft, formerly a Painter, but latterly on the Establishment of the Charter House. He was suddenly taken ill on Clerkenwell Green, and being conveyed home in a coach, expired on entering his apartment’. He was buried in the Charter House burial ground on January 24 as Wm Hopkins Croft, Poor Brother, aged 80.

Craft’s large body of work ranges from miniature portraits, the subjects including a large pair of plaques of George III and Queen Charlotte, dated 1773, in the British Museum, a self portrait (1780) in the National Gallery, Dublin, and a portrait of Sir William Hamilton (1802), and various mythological and allegorical scenes including ‘The Judgment of Paris’, 1782, and ‘The Goddess of the Arts’.

Craft’s bold declaration engraved on the inner back cover of the time piece which states that W. H. Craft Invented 1773 finished 1796 probably cannot be taken at full face value as he must surely have had collaborated with other craftsmen of some stature to produce the sumptuous ormolu case together with the clock and automaton movement. The name of James Cox (c. 1723-1800) has in the past been suggested as this craftsman, although a close study of his work, many examples of which exist, does not reveal any true relationship with the present clock. Cox was primarily a jeweler and watchmaker.           

Four other clocks have so far been recorded ornamented with allegorical and mythological enamel plaques signed by Craft, three with cases closely related in design and workmanship to the present example, the fourth in a case if not Chinese, certainly made for the oriental market. Now in the Musée d’Horlogerie, Château des Monts (op. cit.), the oval drum case is surmounted by a Chinese mythological dog and inset with a conforming plaque depicting a seated Britannia, W. Craft, 1779, her shield forming the face of a watch movement. Supported by scrolled feet ornamented with foliage, it rests on a shaped rectangular case containing a musical movement with an automaton with a landscape and water scene. The first example from the other three has a circular white enamel dial in a drum case above an ormolu base with bowed ends surmounted by lidded vases and supported on ball feet. The ends and the front and back panels of the base are inset with oval enamel panels possibly depicting allegorical subjects, signed Croft 1796 (Antiques Magazine, op. cit.).

The other two examples appear to be identical to each other, although one is the mirror image of the other. The first (Christie’s, op. cit., 1979) has an upright case with a shaped pediment surmounted by a covered vase, the bowed ends surmounted by covered vases, the lids concealing cut-glass scent bottles, and inset with enamel plaques depicting an urn of flowers within an interior, the front with an oval enamel plaque signed W. H. Craft, Invt. et fecit 1785, inset with a small clock movement, signed on the bob Parr, Watch and Clock Maker, No.20. Strand, the reverse inset with a mirror. The central plaque depicts a figure of Peace in a classical architectural setting with a landscape behind, the face of the movement placed on a truncated column and with two winged putti beside a discarded torch and attending two doves, one holding a scrolled parchment detailing the proportion of the National Debt incurred in connection with the American Colonies, ‘North America discovered 1497/War with Spain from 1739 to 1748/28, 414,057/War with France from 1753 and/War with Spain from 1762 to 1763/54,831/War with France, Spain, Holland/and America terminated 1783/108,139,982/Debt on Acct of America/191,685,171/Debt before 1783/46,314,829/National Debt 1783/238,000,000/Parliament of Great Britain/Declare the American Rebels/and in 1783 Acknowledge them Independent!!!’ The fourth clock is identical to this, other than the image on the enamel plaque is reversed and similarly signed W. H. Craft Invt et Fect. 1785, and the movement is unsigned (Christie’s, op. cit. 1994). The first of this ‘pair’ was traditionally given by King George IV to Frederick Thomas Malleson, 1785-1866, Royal Gardener at Claremont Park, Surrey, the second being owned by the Lockhart family, Lee Castle, Lanarkshire, Scotland.      

The exact reason Craft had for producing this series of allegorical plaques is unclear, but they all betray an interest in the American War of independence and its financial consequences for Britain as a colonizing power, and America’s future. His own political leanings are unknown and, as three of the plaques were designed to incorporate watch movements, and all four are of different shape, a single commission appears unlikely. A close parallel in Craft’s work is the portrait plaque of Sir William Hamilton and other plaques commemorating Britain’s naval heroes. Some of these are recorded as being duplicated.

The present clock is the most magnificent and lavishly mounted of all the clocks so far recorded incorporating Craft’s enamels, it is believed to have been acquired in China in 1925 by a Dr. Loup of Switzerland. This interesting part of its history is certainly proved by close examination of the ormolu case which, although primarily of English origin, was altered after its arrival in China to accommodate another, or replacement, movement. This is contained within the case above the layer of drawers, access being gained by the removal of the panel ornamented with The Judgement of Paris. Made of brass, this mechanism is of a lesser quality than the clock movement above, possibly betraying its oriental origins. It operates the rotating twisted glass rods overlaid on the mirror panel, and by means of rising steel rods rotates the pineapple finials. The vase supports of these probably enclosed glass scent bottles, as in the Partridge example. The rather crude cutting of the interior metal panels indicate the inclusion of the later metal rods, but there are no obvious indications as to what of might have originally been in this part of the case or what the frame of the present automaton panel might have contained. The underside of the base has square, molded, and partly un-gilded supports for another form of foot, the present superbly cast and chased feet obviously being of Chinese origin together with some of the pendant foliate and flower apron mounts. Their quality and gilding is equal to that of the English case, the origins and maker of which are still unknown. Although of immense quality and design of great inventiveness, other than the other three aforementioned clock cases, it seems to have no parallels in recorded English metal work of this period. As previously mentioned, the work of Cox is of a much lighter and of a rococo character, his death in 1788 preceding the completion of this clock. The only other person associated with this form of piece was Thomas Weeks of Coventry Street, Leicester Square who had acquired a number of Cox’s own creations, opening a ‘Mechanical Museum’ in Tichborne Street, sometime after 1802.

Other than this group of clocks and some of his plaques which are contained within metal frames, the only other examples of his work recorded in more elaborate mounts are a pair of ormolu mounted bronze cassolettes. Designed in the neo-classical manner, their bronze bases are supported on cloven hoofs with ram’s mark ornament. The domed covers are of enamel decorate with pastoral subjects and signed William Craft 1788 (See: C.I.N.O.A, Exhibition).      

As Simon Harcourt remarks in his introduction to the Catalogue of Various Clocks, Watches, Automata, and Other Miscellaneous Objects of European Workmanship’, during the reign of Ch’ien Lung ‘clocks and mechanical toys of beauty and ingenuity never before seen flowed into China from the West at the rate of some thousands a year. In the Imperial Palaces at Peking, Yuan Ming Yuan, and Jehol the passages of the hours was marked by a fluttering of enameled wings, a gushing of glass fountains and a spinning of paste stars, while from a thousand concealed and whirring orchestras, the gavottes and minuets of London rose strangely into the Chinese air’. Although this clock dates to after the death of the Emperor in 1796, the taste for these ‘sing-songs’, as these complicated clocks were called, continued into the 19^th century, records indicating that value of these imported into China varied between £100 and £200 thousand pounds until 1815. Unfortunately, many have now disappeared through neglect or during the various periods of unrest, in particular in 1860 and 1900, at the time of the Boxer rebellion and subsequent looting of Peking. The wars and revolutions of the 20th century similarly took their toll on the collection, the remains of which are now in the Palace Museum Beijing.      

A number of these clocks returned to the West, both through looting and trade, the present clock purportedly being acquired from China circa 1925. As mentioned, the original case was altered in China, similar pineapple finials being found on a clock made in Guangzhou in the early 1800s (See. Scientific and Technical instruments of the Quing Dynasty p. 244, fig 218), several other Chinese clocks in the same collection being ornamented with revolving glass rods as in the present example.       

The present clock has to be regarded as one of the most fascinating examples of both English and Chinese art surviving from the late 18^th century. Although probably originally intended to be sold to an English patron, its subsequent acquisition by either the Chinese Emperor or a member of his court clearly illustrates how although European taste was far from Chinese taste, in this object each found harmony.

See:
Simon Harcourt-Smith, The Palace Museum Peiping,  A catalogue of various clocks, watches, automata and other miscellaneous objects, 1933.

The Antique Collector, February 1951, ‘English Clocks for the Chinese Market’, H. Allan Lloyd, pp. 25-29.

Antique Magazine, March 1951, Trade advertisement, Frank Partridge & Sons, New York & London, p. 183.

C.I.N.O.A. Art Treasures Exhibition, 1962, item 30, pl. 236.

H. Alan Lloyd, The Collector’s Dictionary of Clocks, 1964, p. 57, fig. 139, an illustration of the clock formerly in The Collection of Maurice Sandoz, and now in The Collection of the Musée d’Horlogerie, Château des Monts, Le Locle, Switzerland.

Chateau des Monts, Le Locle, Switzerland, Collection de Montres et Automates: Maurice et Edouard M. Sandoz, N.D., p. 32, No. 6.

The property of a lady, sold, Christie’s, London, ‘Fine Clocks, Watches, Barometers and Scientific Instruments’, May 2, 1979, lot 144.

Daphne Foskett, Miniatures – Dictionary and Guide, 1987, pp. 518-519.

The property of a lady, sold, Christie’s, London, ‘Important English Furniture’, July 7, 1994, lot 34.

Scientific and Technical Instruments of the Qing Dynasty The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, 1998.