Footnotes

We are grateful to Roger Smith for his research of this lot and the following footnote:

This clock belongs to a group of sculptural clocks made in the 1780s and early 1790s by the firm of Vulliamy of Pall Mall, which represent British neoclassical design at its best. [1] Although the earliest of these clocks, like the present one, were signed by Justin Vulliamy (1712-97), the driving force behind their design and manufacture was his son and junior partner, Benjamin Vulliamy (1747-1811), who was Clockmaker to the King in his own right. Vulliamy wanted to produce a range of ornamental clocks that would overcome "The great preference the English ... give to French work, inasmuch that in most gentlemen's houses when there is an ornamental clock it is a French one." [2] Although his project to "manufactur[e] ornamental clocks in England" was not entirely novel, having been preceded by Matthew Boulton, it was still a major commercial and artistic undertaking.

In designing his clocks, Vulliamy drew on typical neoclassical themes already familiar to Parisian makers, like allegorical figures, and the urn with horizontal chapter rings, but his clocks were not simply copies of French originals. Helped by his extensive library of design sources, he produced clocks which were distinctively his own. [3] As the German diarist, Sophie von La Roche, noted appreciatively after visiting his shop in 1786, "French artists have certainly created some fine things ... in clocks ... but I never yet saw anything so noble, simple and instructive from their hands. All the images are Greek figures in biscuit porcelain and Mr Vulliamy's physiognomy and gentle modest person hide a store of Greek ideas and moral allegory." She contrasted the "noble simplicity" of his pieces with the "luxury and magnificence" of French clocks. [4] This "noble simplicity" owed much to the large allegorical figures in biscuit porcelain - echoing Parian marble - which Vulliamy commissioned for these clocks. Their close integration with other elements of the design give the clocks a dynamic quality and emphasise the 'instructive' allegorical messages noted by Sophie von La Roche.

Although Vulliamy was responsible for the design of these clocks, he did not try to manufacture everything in his own workshops. Instead, as was common in many luxury trades at this time, he commissioned independent specialists to make the various parts to his specifications, and then supervised their assembly to his own high standards. Most of the work was done in London, including the modelling of the allegorical figures by talented young sculptors working to Vulliamy's general designs. However, these figures were made in biscuit porcelain by the Derby Porcelain Manufactory, probably the only British porcelain maker able to produce such large figures at this date. The use of biscuit porcelain, which contributed to the neoclassical elegance of these clocks, also increased the problems of production, and we have a fascinating insight into these problems, thanks to the survival of much of Vulliamy's correspondence with the owner of the Derby factory, William Duesbury II. [5]

These sculptural clocks were extremely expensive. Derby charged Vulliamy five guineas (later increased to six) just for making each large biscuit figure. A surviving bill to the Prince of Wales dated May 1784, for a clock like the present one with a female figure leaning over a funerary urn (then described as a Muse but now usually called Andromache), shows that they cost the enormous sum of 90 guineas. [6] Consequently, even within the circle of Vulliamy's usual wealthy customers, there were only a few rich connoisseurs, including members of the Royal Family, who were willing and able to pay such prices. Indeed, according to Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy (1780-1854), who later succeeded his father as King's Clockmaker, the first clock of this type was made for King George III himself. [7]

The Andromache figure was the earliest of the large figures to be produced by Derby for Vulliamy. The first version of the figure, which was probably inspired by an engraving in Montfaucon's Antiquity Explained, was commissioned by Vulliamy from Henry Webber (1754-1826), a former pupil of John Bacon RA, and a Royal Academy Gold Medallist, and produced in the very early 1780s. However, there were problems with it and in 1784 Vulliamy was considering having it replaced. By late 1786 the figure had been remodelled by a more recent RA Gold Medallist, Charles Peart (1759-1798), and this version, identifiable by its altered drapery, added sandals and a more elaborate hairstyle, is the one found on most surviving clocks of this type, including the present clock. It remained available for new clocks and the occasional replacement of a damaged figure into the nineteenth century, though probably from stock retained by the Vulliamys rather than continued production at Derby.

Although the Derby archives are exceptionally informative about the design and manufacture of the porcelain figures of the sculptural clocks, most Andromache clocks predate Vulliamy's own surviving business records, so we have little contemporary information about the other craftsmen involved or the customers who bought them. However, a total of around 20 clocks using one or other Andromache figure seem to have been produced, dating mainly from the 1780s and 1790s. They were not always combined with an urn. A clock (No. 167) in the Duke of Northumberland's collection at Syon House uses a celestial globe instead: this may be the clock shown in Benjamin Vulliamy's portrait in the collection of the London Clockmakers' Company. [fig. - BV portrait] The figure also occurs with an armillary sphere on a Vulliamy barometer of 1787 in the Victoria and Albert Museum (W.16-1958); while another Vulliamy clock featuring Andromache (No. 253) was one of the presents taken to China by Lord Macartney's embassy to the Qianlong emperor in 1792-94, but has since disappeared. [8] .

Apart from the figure being remodelled, the design of these clocks underwent a number of changes over the twenty or more years of production, gradually departing from the severe neoclassicism remarked by Sophie von La Roche. Numerous gilt ornaments were added to the vase, altar-pedestal and base, like rams' heads to the corners of the pedestal, elaborate friezes to pedestal and base, and a snake handle and flame finial to the vase. However, the present clock still has the simplest forms of vase, pedestal and base, indicating that it is one of the earliest examples of the type, dating from the early 1780s. This dating is confirmed by the fact that the backplate of the clock-movement is signed by Justin Vulliamy and is not numbered - features which place it before c. 1785. These very early features are shared by another Andromache clock still in the Royal Collection, which was given to Queen Victoria by Lord Melbourne in 1848. As would be expected from the early date, that clock has the first version of Andromache, but the figure on the present clock is the second version, suggesting that it is a replacement.

It has already been noted that the very first clock of this type was made for George III, and another was sold to the Prince of Wales in 1784. Both clocks were apparently still in the Royal collection in the early nineteenth century, and one of them was brought from Brighton Pavilion to be extensively repaired by Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy in October 1834. The itemised bill in the Lord Chamberlain's accounts shows that, as well as the ormolu being regilded and the marble repolished, an additional metal moulding was fixed to the base to raise the case and protect the pendulum, a festoon of husks was added to the pedestal on the side next to the figure, and the biscuit figure was replaced. [9] These features can all be found on the present clock, which has the extra moulding to the base and festoon on the side, and uses the anachronistic second model of Andromache. This strongly suggests that it is the clock repaired for William IV in 1834, and since that clock came from the Brighton Pavilion which had been built for the Prince of Wales, it is probably the clock sold by Vulliamy to the Prince in 1784.

Notes
1. This group of clocks was first discussed in T. Clifford, 'Vulliamy Clocks and British Sculpture', Apollo, Oct 1990, pp. 226-237.
2. Note by Vulliamy in Guildhall Library, London: Clockmakers' Company, Ms. 3945.
3. R. Smith, 'Benjamin Vulliamy's library: a collection of neo-Classical design sources', The Burlington Magazine, June 1999, pp. 328-37.
4. C. Williams (trans.), Sophie in London 1786: being the Diary of Sophie von La Roche, London 1933, pp.100-1.
5. This correspondence, and the light it sheds on the manufacture of these clocks, was published in A. Ledger and R. Smith (eds.), Benjamin Vulliamy and the Derby Porcelain Manufactory 1784-1795, Derby Museums and Art Gallery 2007.
6. Royal Archives, RA 25642, Vulliamy bill 28 May 1784.
8. British Library, India Office Records G/12/91 pp. 552-3.
9. The National Archives: LC 11/86, Lord Chamberlain's Accounts, Vulliamy's Bills, Brighton, 24/25 Oct. 1834.