A table clock signed 'Guibet L'ainé à Paris' with a case of chased ormolu and white marble in the form of a circular dial supported by two fluted columns and consoles with acanthus decoration. Above four goats' legs support a table laid with a flaming altar, a lyre, a basin and ewer. The table is decorated with swags of drapery.

Case: The case is of chased ormolu and white marble. Below the dial is a plaque of Sèvres porcelain painted in rose camaieu. The case has a rounded oblong base with a panel decorated with cupids in relief. The circular dial is supported by two fluted pilasters and consoles with acanthus ornamentation. Above are four goat legs supporting a table upon which is a flaming altar, lyre, ewer and basin, swags of drapery hanging from the table.

Dial: Convex white enamel dial, 15.2cm diameter. There is an outer ring of minutes, numbered 15 in erect Arabic numerals, the individual minutes marked by green dots with a gilt surround. The 5-minute marks are gilt stars. Additionally there is a set of erect Arabic hour numerals, 1 to 12, with small gilt stars at the half-hours, linked by a continuous festoon line. The winding holes are inside 4 and 8. Small holes for regulation are above 60. The hour and minute hands are pierced, engraved and gilt. The dial is signed 'Guibet l'âmé à Paris'.

Movement: Circular brass movement plates, 13.6cm diameter. Both trains have going barrels. The going train to the right has an anchor escapement, with an escape wheel of 30T, the pallets spanning 3 teeth. Regulation is exacted by a wound-up cord. The pendulum has a steel rod, 22.3cm long, with a fixed flat brass bob 3.2cm diameter. The striking train is of count-wheel type to the left, and the wheel is cut for a sequence of 1 to 12, exacting a single stroke every half-hour.

Bequeathed by John Jones

This clock was among a large collection of furniture, porcelain, metalwork, paintings and books owned by the tailor and businessman John Jones, and kept in cramped conditions at his house at 95, Piccadilly. In his will of 4 December 1879 and in a codicil of 22 January 1880, Jones bequeathed the objects to the South Kensington Museum, and they were transferred there after his death in 1882. The Handbook to the Jones bequest, published in 1883, marvels at the value of the gift, which seems still not to have been displayed to best advantage: 'Probably a large majority of those who visit the Jones collection will be indisposed to believe ... that so limited a space as three not large galleries in the Museum can contain furniture and decorative arts worth no less than a quarter of a million of money'. Jones' principal collecting interests lay in French eighteenth-century furniture and decorative arts, of which this clock is an example, as well as reflecting the late-Victorian love of rich, gilded surfaces and historical artistic styles. Acquired by John Jones before 1882; one of sixteen clocks he bequeathed to this museum

A sophisticated table clock the dial supported by two fluted columns and consoles with acanthus decoration on an oblong based decorated with a panel with cupids in relief. Above four goats legs support a table swagged with drapery with a flaming altar, a lyre, ewer and basin. Below the dial a plaque of Sèvres porcelain is painted in rose camaieu. One of fifteen clocks bequeathed to the South Kensington Museum by John Hones in 1882.

1003:1 to 3-1882