A highly important George III ormolu, Derby porcelain and white marble mantel clock by Benjamin Vulliamy dated 1785

the curved, stepped white marble base supporting at the centre a truncated fluted white marble column inset with a clock, the movement signed on the back-plate Vulliamy, with a white enamelled dial and ormolu outer ring, and supported on a conforming ormolu moulded base set on a square plinth engraved Designed by /B. Vulliamy/LONDON 1785, to the right a reclining Derby biscuit female figure of Astronomy holding a gilded Orrery, a gilded metal tripod ornamented with rams’ heads at extended right foot and a telescope behind her, and to her left a Derby biscuit figure of a standing naked putto with a gilt sextant in his left hand, to the left of the column a further Derby biscuit standing winged draped figure possibly representing Genius, to his left an ormolu mounted upturned marble Corinthian capital mounted with a marble scroll inscribed Design’d &/Executed by/B. Vulliamy/Clock and Watch/Maker to/His/ MAJESTY

Anonymous sale, Christie’s London, 7 July 1988, lot 43.

With Messrs. Bobinet, London.

Private Collection, London.

The Grosvenor House Antiques Fair, London, June 1989.

Journal of the Derby Porcelain International Society, December 1989, Malcolm Savage, ‘An Important Clock by Benjamin Vulliamy’, pp. 7-10

Apollo Magazine, October 1990, Timothy Clifford, ‘Vulliamy clocks and British sculpture’, pp. 226-237, Pl. I and front cover.

 

See:

Cedrick Jagger, Royal Clocks – The British Monarchy & its Timekeepers 1300-1900, London, 1983 pp. 116-117, fig. 161

This superb clock, Design’d & executed by B. Vulliamy Clock and Watch Maker to His Majesty, clearly illustrates  Benjamin Vulliamy’s creative and inventive spirit in combining his own skills as a clock-maker with those of others including sculptors, modellers in porcelain and workers in metal, to produce some of ‘the most handsome decorative art objects made in Britain during the last quarter of the eighteenth century’ (Apollo Magazine, October 1990, ‘Vulliamy clocks and British sculpture’, Timothy Clifford).

 

It is one of the most elaborate recorded models conceived by Vulliamy (1747-1811) who was of Swiss extraction, his father being a partner with his father-in-law Benjamin Gray (1676-1764), Watchmaker in Ordinary to George II. Holders of the Royal Warrant from the 1740s, Benjamin’s own son Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy continuing to run the firm until the middle of the 19^th century. As mentioned, and as evinced by the inscription on this clock, Benjamin was responsible for the overall design of his own clocks, in this case commissioning the Liverpool sculptor John Deare (1759-1789), who was associated with the workshop of the sculptor John Bacon, R. A. (1740-1799), to produce models for the figures which were then sent to the Derby factory of William Duesbury (1763-1796) to be produced in biscuit porcelain.       

A number of letters survive in the Derby Public Library which appear to concern the creation of this particular model of clock, the first, dated May 31, 1784, one from Benjamin Vulliamy to William Duesbury II discussing the making of the winged figure as seen on the present figure, Vulliamy not wishing for it ‘to be with wings all of a piece’. (See: Clifford, op. cit.). Clifford considers that the various figures depict an obscure moral allegory possibly suggesting ‘the pure Human Mind in spite of being governed by the Heavens, when guided by Virtue and aided by Time, will be rewarded by Merit’. Two other similar clocks are recorded by Clifford including one, now in a Detroit private collection, numbered 236, which is mounted with a large ormolu sun-burst behind the figures and was originally fitted with an organ movement which would have been contained within the surviving satinwood and painted pedestal probably supplied by Benjamin Brownley. The second example, in the Royal Collection ( Cedric Jagger Royal Clocks, fig. 161, is virtually identical to the present clock, although the putto is draped and it retains the laurel wreath and has a book and a scroll on the stepped base; this is engraved Design’d/for his/R.H.ye P./of Wales on the scroll placed on the Corinthian column.