Beschreibung:

A good early 19th century ormolu-mounted marble and slate mantel timepiece with Royal provenance. First sold to the Duke of Clarence, later King William IV, on 19th January 1808.Vulliamy, London, Number 405 The case surmounted by a gilt urn on a plinth over the reeded drum, set on a pair of carved scrolls set on a double stepped slate plinth with ormolu beaded border and recessed panels to the front and sides, the whole raised on turned toupie feet. The drum flanked by a pair of recumbent lions, each facing outward and holding a gilt ball. The 3.5 inch restored white enamel Roman dial with pierced and engraved gilt fancy hands, each numeral picked out in gold and with a dotted gilt minute border framing the whole. Set within a beaded concave bezel. The single wire fusee movement with four slender tapered pillars, suspension spring regulation and half deadbeat escapement, the back plate engraved Vulliamy London No 405. Protected by a turned brass push-on cover. Ticking with a winding key and matching numbered pendulum. With sincere thanks to Roger Smith for his help in researching the early history of this clock. 29 cms (11 ins) highFootnotesProvenance: From the late Sir Ernest and Lady Caroline Oppenheimer Collection and hence by descent. The firm of Vulliamy & Son were the most fashionable clockmakers in late Georgian London. Their shop at 74 (later 68) Pall Mall was situated close to St James's Palace, and although Benjamin Vulliamy (1747-1811) did not become head of the firm until 1797, he had been Clockmaker to King George III since 1772. His grandfather Benjamin Gray had been Watchmaker to George II, while his father, the Swiss immigrant Justin Vulliamy was clockmaker to Queen Charlotte until his death in 1797 (for an example of his work, see lot 110 in this sale). The official warrant as Royal Clockmaker later passed to Benjamin's son, Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy (1780-1854). [1] In the 1780s, Benjamin Vulliamy decided to challenge the dominance of imported Parisian clocks in the homes of wealthy Britons by making clocks that were not only of the highest quality but also in the latest taste. His first range of ornamental clocks appealed to the fashion for neo-classicism, with white marble cases, sometimes in the form of a broken column, flanked by Classical Greek figures made of Derby biscuit porcelain. [2] However, by the late 1790s Vulliamy's customers were tiring of the restrained elegance of these sculptural clocks and demanding the richer "Empire" style that was becoming fashionable in France. This encouraged Vulliamy to produce a new range of clocks in a variety of coloured marble cases ornamented with pairs of "Roman" lions (or sometimes sphinxes), and vase or eagle surmounts, cast in ormolu or bronze. Although inspired by French originals, the overall design of these clocks was created by Vulliamy himself, who then organised their production through a network of independent suppliers and outworkers based mainly in London. However, he also maintained some contact with Continental Europe in spite of the long years of war which followed the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. Among his foreign contacts was the leading French bronzier Jean-Baptiste-Maximilien Delafontaine (1750-1820), former syndic of the Corporation des Fondeurs-Doreurs-Graveurs in Paris, who stayed with the Vulliamy family in London during the Revolutionary summer of 1789. He subsequently returned to Paris, where he lived in the faubourg St Honoré. Delafontaine kept in touch with Vulliamy, and a few years later sent him two pairs of lions which were subsequently used as patterns for Vulliamy's first lion clocks. These lions, which were in (approximate) mirror-pairs, were described by Vulliamy as 'after the antique', and may have been inspired by the famous Medici lions in Florence, though the lions on the clocks are lying down rather than standing. While the two pairs supplied by Delafontaine were of related design, they were in two