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Matthew Boulton (1728-1809)

Mantel clock 1770-71

Blue john case with gilt bronze mounts and an enamel dial with blued steel pierced hands | 48.7 x 28.3 x 21.4 cm (whole object) | RCIN 30028

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  • This mantel clock was probably ordered at the same time as a chimney garniture for the Queen’s Bedroom at Buckingham House and is the object from this commission for which there is the most direct evidence of William Chambers’s involvement. An initial sketch may have been supplied by George III; Matthew Boulton, in a letter to his partner, John Fothergill dated 4 March 1770, informs him that he - Boulton - was about to be given by Chambers 'the King's design wch I will send down'. Whilst no drawing in the King's hand survives, a preliminary sketch for the clock by Chambers exists and incorporates elements from drawings made by him in France and Italy, including winged sphinxes at either side of the base. The latter were eliminated in the finished drawing (not surviving), which Chambers provided for Boulton and which may also have incorporated some suggestions from the King. In the manufacture of the case, which was substantially finished by January 1771, Boulton’s workmen apparently ‘conformed to a hair breadth’ with Chambers’s design.

    The enamel dial has the 12 hours represented by Roman numerals with 5 minute intervals in arabic numbers and a pair of finely pierced blued steel hands; inscribed on the dial and engraved on the backplate 'Wright'. The mechanism has a fine triple fusee movement; the time train is in the usual form except that the escape wheel arbour comes through the back and is pivoted through a back cock. The escapement is a pinwheel with offset pallets. Going through both pallet arms is a setting screw for the crutch arm to set it in beat. The strike sounds the hours on a single bell. The chiming train unfortunately is now incomplete.

    Thomas Wright was a Quaker and a member of the Clockmakers' Company from 1770 with premises at 6 Poultry until his death in 1792. His movement was fitted into the case with difficulty and caused Boulton considerable frustration and delay in completing the order. The clock was finally ready for delivery to the King and Queen at Richmond in April 1771; it seems to have been kept thereafter at Buckingham House; by 1817 it was the centrepiece of a chimney garniture in the Crimson Drawing Room.

    Although there are no recorded payments to Boulton in George III’s surviving accounts, a letter to Boulton from his partner John Fothergill in March 1772 indicates that the total cost to the firm of six vases (probably including two pairs of King’s vases and a pair of sphinx vases) and the clock case was more than £412. Fothergill concluded, ‘I don’t imagine his Majesty will allow us much profit on that sum’. In spite of its designation as the ‘King’s' clock, this model was not deemed by Boulton to be exclusive: he seems to have produced at least six clocks for other clients without obtaining the King’s authority.

    Invoices show that the clock was sent twice - in 1822 and 1827 - for repair and cleaning to Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy who altered the verge escapement to a pin-wheel. In 1829 it was installed at Windsor Castle.

    Catalogue entry adapted from George III & Queen Charlotte: Patronage, Collecting and Court Taste, London, 2004
    Provenance

    Made for George III.

    Included in the Pictorial Inventory of 1827-33 – RCIN 934902. The inventory was originally created as a record of the clocks, vases, candelabra and other miscellaneous items from Carlton House, as well as selected items from the stores at Buckingham House, the Royal Pavilion, Brighton, Hampton Court and Kensington Palace for consideration in the refurbishment of Windsor Castle.

  • Medium and techniques

    Blue john case with gilt bronze mounts and an enamel dial with blued steel pierced hands

    Measurements

    48.7 x 28.3 x 21.4 cm (whole object)

  • Alternative title(s)

    King's Clock


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