This elaborately mounted tortoiseshell-veneered clock is comparable in form and decoration - although on a greatly reduced, almost miniature scale - to the slightly later four-sided astronomical clock by Pinchbeck and others. The eight day rack with pull ¼-repeat strike with fusee movement and (later) recoil escapement is relatively unsophisticated and by a maker of whom little is known, the domed, temple-like case is of the finest quality and is designed to be viewed 'in the round'. The face is of silver with spandrels and decoration in the arch; the dial is of enamel with the 12 hours represented in Roman figures with a pair of original blued steel pierced hands. The clock has a domed cover resting on canted supports and crowned by five vase finials. Handles are fitted on either side of the dome. The ormolu panels at the sides and back are very richly chased with trees in landscapes, foliage and rocaille ornament, suggestive of the work of one of the immigrant German craftsmen who dominated London chasing in the mid-eighteenth century, especially in the production of snuff boxes. The other mounts are of similarly refined quality. Although direct evidence is lacking, it would seem likely that this clock was intended for the Queen’s rather than the King’s Apartments at Buckingham House: it was certainly in the Queen’s Dressing Room at St James’s Palace before a fire there in 1809. Catalogue entry adapted from George III & Queen Charlotte: Patronage, Collecting and Court Taste, London, 2004