Marquetry of brass and tortoiseshell, mounted in ormolu, in the style of 18th c Boulle work.

A table clock, with a mahogany case veneered with turtleshell inlaid with brass surmounted by a bronze figure of Fame

Bequeathed by John Jones

This clock is a close copy of that made circa 1715 for Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria (1662-1726) which was lent with the Elector's desk by 5th Duke of Buccleuch to an exhibition at Gore House, London, 1853. Copies of both these items were made for the 4th Marquess of Hertford in Paris from drawings made at the Gore House exhibition and delivered by John Webb (c.1800-1872). Now in the Wallace Collection, that clock movement was made by Peter Saphin (active 1841-1874). This clock is the only other known copy of the 1715 original. It may also have been supplied by John Webb. This clock differs from the copy in the Wallace Collection in that there are no armorials at the centre of the bottom of the case.

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, as well as reflecting the late-Victorian love of rich, gilded surfaces and historical artistic styles.
With John Jones by 1882, it was one of sixteen clocks bequeathed by him to this museum.

This table clock in a case of turtleshell inlaid with brass on a mahogany base is a copy of an original made in 1715 for Maximilian II Emmanuel, Elector of Bavaria (1662-1726) which was in the collection of Walter Francis, 5th Duke of Buccleuch, when it was exhibited in London in 1853. It is not recorded who made this copy, which is one of two versions, the other, made for the 4th Marquess of Hertford, was supplied by the dealer John Webb (c.1800-1872)and is in the Wallace Collection, London with a movement by Peter Saphin (active 1841-1874). John Jones acquired this clock for his London home, 95 Piccadilly, and it was in his collection at the time of his death when it was bequeathed to the South Kensington Museum.

1002-1882