The astronomy clock by Benjamin Vullliamy.
 In
this ambitious project, vulliamy enlisted the help of William Duesbury
I and II, successive owners of the Derby porcelain factory, to try
and produce large biscuit figures to rival the productions of Sevres
This clock shows clearly how the style of ornamental
clocks produced by the leading London clockmakers, Vulliamy &
Son of 74 Pall Mall, developed during the late 18th century in response
to changes in fashionable taste.
It was in the early 1780s that Benjamin Vulliamy (1747-1811), King's
Clockmaker and junior partner in the family firm, began to develop
a range of ornamental clocks to challenge the dominance of French
pieces in Society drawing rooms.1. Although he would certainly have
known of Matthew Boulton's clocks with allegorical figures in ormolu,
produced in the 1760s-70s, Vulliamy's immediate inspiration probably
came from contemporary French clocks. These occasionally used biscuit
porcelain figures instead of ormolu and Vulliamy seems to have preferred
the cooler neo-classicism of the former. 
Although Vulliamy himself would have been responsible for the
overall design of these clocks, he employed highly talented young
sculptors to model the figures. His practice was to use prize-winners
from the Royal Academy Schools who, he evidently hoped, had acquired
not only the necessary skills but also an understanding of the latest
neo-classical taste. Once modelled, the figures were sent to Derby
to be reproduced in biscuit porcelain for Vulliamy's sole use. Surviving
correspondence between Vulliamy and the Derby factory shows the
serious technical problems which the factory faced in producing
figures of the precise size, colour and quality demanded by Vulliamy.
As a result, production of the larger figures was slow and they
were expensive: Vulliamy was charged 5 guineas each (later increased
to 6 guineas) for them.
Vulliamy's first designs for clocks with Derby
biscuit figures were relatively simple, but by the mid-1780s he
had developed some larger compositions using three biscuit figures
(two large and one small). Only five or six of these large clocks
are known for certain to have been made: one, apparently dated 1787,
was sold from the collection of the Duke of Buckingham at Stowe
in 1848 (fate unknown, but its satinwood pedestal survives)2. ;
two more (Nos. 170 and 178), dating from around 1788, are in the
Royal Collection; a fourth (No. 236), dates from about around 1791;
while the fifth, dated 1785, is the present clock. A sixth clock,
seen by Sophie von La Roche when she visited Vulliamy's shop in
September 1786, may possibly have been the latter, though she described
the seated female figure as reading a book3.. Except for No. 178,
all seem to have used the same basic composition of figures, forming
an allegory of time.
The present clock has been described by Timothy Clifford -
The date 1785, the fact that the movement is unnumbered and
the marble scroll inscribed, 'Design'd & Executed by B. Vulliamy
(etc.)', would all suggest that this was the earliest of the group
to be completed. The large figures of a winged Genius and Urania
holding an armillary sphere (symbolic of astronomy), were probably
inspired by engravings in Montfaucon's 'Antiquity Explained',
a favourite design source for Benjamin Vulliamy, and modelled
by John Deare (1759-98), Gold Medallist at the Royal Academy Schools
in 1780.
It was not just the biscuit figures of these clocks which were
contracted out. As was normal in the London clockmaking trade, most
of the various elements, including the movement, would have been
made to Vulliamy's precise specifications by independent specialists,
with only final adjustments being carried out in Vulliamy's own
workshop. In this, his practice was similar to that of his French
competitors, the Parisian marchands-merciers. However, unlike many
of their French counterparts, Vulliamy's clocks have movements of
quality commensurate with their cases.
The single-train movement of the present clock is a good example
of the high quality workmanship found in Vulliamy's products. With
its long, narrow plates, it was clearly made specially to fit the
marble column of the case. Characteristic Vulliamy features include
the use of a half dead-beat escapement, (more accurate but more
difficult to make than the verge or anchor escapements commonly
found in English bracket and table clocks of this period); and the
small square for 'rise and fall' adjustment of the pendulum, above
12 o'clock on the dial, (neatly concealed on this clock by a removable
ormolu rosette).
The original price of this clock is unknown but it would have been
expensive even for Vulliamy, (who was notoriously costly), and certainly
well in excess of the 100 guineas which he is known to have charged
for clocks with a single large Derby biscuit figure.
For these clocks, see: T Clifford 'Vulliamy clocks and British
scultpure', Apollo, October 1990, pp. 226-37; also R Smith 'Benjamin
Vulliamy's painted satinwood clocks and pedestals, Apollo, June
1995, pp. 25-33
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A
rare and fine Duesbury and Kean period campana by William Cotton.
A
superb pair of derby porcelain botanical twin-handled vases by William
Pegg.
The
finely painted service is boldly painted with botanical specimens,
titled in red script to the reverse. The richly gilded borders with
swans and stylised flower-heads are on a rich salmon ground.
Pattern
126, Circa 1790.
Pattern
126, Circa 1790.