Beschreibung:

A highly important George III ormolu-mounted, enamel inset and paste-ornamented table clock with a Chinese automaton movement, the enamels by W. H. Craft, the cover of the timepiece signed ‘W. H. Craft invented 1773 finished 1796’ the timepiece movement with a 3½ inch white enamel dial, gold hands, center seconds, fusee and chain, deadbeat escapement and fixed kidney-shaped bob pendulum, the circular back-plate engraved with scrolling leaves and flowers, in a drum case, the interior of the circular hinged cover signed W. H. Craft Invented 1773 finished 1796, the exterior with an enamel plaque depicting classical figures of a bearded man and a young girl bearing a garland of flowers before a statue of Minerva, patroness of institutions of learning and the arts, sculpture and painting unsigned, surmounted by an ormolu woven basket encircled by a snake and with scrolled leaves, containing fruit and flowers represented by a domed enamel cover painted in polychrome colors and supporting a white and blue paste-inset pineapple issuing from gilt leaves, above a later beveled heart-shaped mirror within a scrolled foliate frame fronting a conforming case on scrolled supports with pendant swags and foliate scrolls, each inset with small gilt-ornamented blue enamel plaques, the sides pierced with trellis-work and ornamented with musical trophies within berried laurel wreaths, containing a three-train heart-shaped musical and striking fusee movement, sounding the quarters and hours on three bells, the music released at the hour or at will and playing one of two tunes on a further eight bells with ten hammers, the heart-shaped back-plate engraved with foliate scrolls, birds and a basket of flowers, the conforming back cover cast and chased with foliate scrolls and husks and centered by an oval enamel plaque decorated in polychrome with a figure of a seated lady writing within an interior with columns, a pedimented doorway to the rear and drapery to the right before a bust of Minerva and a table globe turned to show the Americas, to the left a scrolled parchment inscribed North America discovered 1497/Ack…ledged Independent 1783, signed and dated 1786, supported on a rectangular base with turret corners containing a fusee and chain mechanism controlled by a lever from the music train and operating four white and blue paste-inset pineapple finials revolving above ormolu vases, the molded bodies cast with foliate and fluted ornament supported on the corner turrets, each with an inset enamel plaque depicting a classical female figure within architectural settings with columns and arches, with landscapes in the background, the first figure representing Art holding paint brushes and an oval panel with a picture of cupid, with books and a scrolled parchment at her feet, signed and dated 1785, the second representing Plenty, holding a fringed cloth filled with fruit, with a cornucopia at her feet, signed and dated 17?, the third representing Love, the figure holding a dove, with a bow, a quiver of arrows and flaming torch at her feet, signed and dated 178?, the fourth representing Music, the figure holding a lyre, a tambourine, two drums, a pipe and a sheet of music at her feet, signed and dated 1785, at her feet, the central panel of the front of the base with an oval rib tied laurel wreath enclosing a Chinese mirrored panel centered by a pink paste set flower radiating twisted glass rods revolving in sequence with the pineapple finials, and with gilt-ornamented blue enamel inset corners, the reverse side with a similarly decorated door enclosing the Chinese mechanism and with an oval enamel panel decorated with a scene from classical mythology illustrating the Judgment of Paris, signed and dated 1782, the sides similarly inset with allegorical oval enamel plaques, one with a female seated before a wall fountain and holding doves, signed and dated ?, the other with a female in a pastoral landscape with sheep and holding a wreath of flowers, signed