A George II blue-japanned bracket clock, Robert Higgs, London Circa 1750

the eight-day movement striking the hours and quarters on a series of nine bells, the face signed Robert Higgs/London, with a date aperture and Strike/Silent subsidiary dial, the the gilt metal spandrels cast with female sphinx and foliate scrolls, the back-plate with foliate and scroll engraving, the case finely japanned in dark blue and shaded gold with chinoiserie scenes and sprays of flowers within diapered borders, and with foliate scroll cartouches and masks lacking pull repeat and pendulum indicator on face.



 

Robert Higgs was apprenticed to Richard Blundell in 1714. He was admitted as a Member of the Clockmakers' Company and worked at Sweetings Alley, London, apparently from 1743 until 1769, where he established a substantial trade in elaborate and well-made musical and other complex clocks, many for the Spanish market. His son Peter was apprenticed to him in 1740 and was Master of the Clockmaker's Company by 1767. They were in partnership together as Robert and Peter Higgs, and later with James Evans, who occasionally styled himself Diego Evans. Examples of Higgs' work, as well as of the partnership Robert & Peter Higgs, and also Higgs and Evans, styled "Higgs y Diego Evans'", are in the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Guildhall Museum, both in London, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. They were also well-respected watchmakers, and there are examples of their watches in the Glasgow Museum.
This clock is known to have been in a private collection in Peru, South America, until quite recently, and it is reputed to have been originally acquired in Spain.
It is interesting to compare the execution and design of the japanning of the case of this clock with the work of Giles Grendey who, as with Higgs, had an extensive trade in the mid 18th century with Spain. Little research has been made into the relationship between clockmakers and the makers of the cases they used, although presumably they were provided by specialist makers. Examination of the present clock indicates that the movement was fitted after the case had been japanned. The interior of the case and the board supporting the movement have been lightly japanned red which has been chiseled away on the latter to accommodate the swing of the pendulum. This was clearly done at the time the movement was fitted.

See:

C. Clutton ed., Britten’s Old Clocks and Watches and their Makers, eighth edition, New York, 1973
G. H. Baillie, Watchmakers and Clock Makers of the World, Colchester, 1988
Geoffrey Beard and Christopher Gilbert, Dictionary of English Furniture Makers 1660-1840, Leeds, 1986, pp. 371-372
Antiques Magazine, April 1971, Christopher Gilbert, ‘Furniture by Giles Grendey for the Spanish Trade? p.p.544-549
Sotheby’s, New York, sale of the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Lammot du Pont Copeland, January 19 2002, lot 36, for a scarlet-japanned bracket clock by this maker