A long-case clock with green and gold japanned case, decorated with Chinoiserie motifs, the arched hood surrounding a brass dial with silvered chapter ring, the dial signed in a circular dial plate, 'Joseph Davis, London'.

A long-case clock with green and gold japanned case, decorated with Chinoiserie motifs, the arched hood surrounding a brass dial with silvered chapter ring, the dial signed in a circular dial plate, 'Joseph Davis, London'.
The brass dial plate is enriched with mounts of masks, dolphins and scrollwork. The case is simply made with mouldings and is decorated in lacquer on the hinged door and base with sprays of flowers, figures (one on horseback) and a building; in the middle of the door is a circular panel of glass. The surface is further enriched with slight outline leafy and floral designs. The case is lined inside with paper stamped with Chinese secenes on a gilt ground. There is a lock and key.

Hood restored: surface considerably damaged especially on the base. Lining paper worn; back of case pierced with holes.

Given by Lionel Harris

Gift from Lionel Harris (The Spanish Art Gallery, 50 Conduit St. W1). RP 1911/1896. Said to have been purchased in Spain. This is entirely credible and japanned clocks were a major export from London in the middle of the 18th century and Spaniards were keen buyers, as were Scandinavians, with many such clocks surviving in those places.

Other clocks by Davis have gone through auctions and dealer sales in recent years. A black japanned clock by him was sold by Christie's, London, from the Dufferin and Ava collection, on 25 March 1999, lot 326. The case was close in form to the V&A clock, but with an additional cresting layer, which possibly the V&A clock originally had. In 2015 a black-japanned clock by Davis was offered in Stacey's Auction, Essex Auction Room, and dated to the 19th century, although it was almost certainly of the same date as the V&A clock. In 2017 the dealer Nick Brock of Dallas, Texas, showed another black-japanned clock, but that one without the glass panel in the centre of the case door, and with a different shaping to the top of the hood. These three clocks suggest that Davis specialized in supplying clocks with japanned cases.

From 1952 this clock was on loan to Hogarth's House, Chiswick, for some years.

Before the effects of age and oxydisation dulled its colour, this green and gold clock would have been spectacularly colourful. It would have appealed strongly to the eighteenth-century taste for items in the Chinese taste (Chinoiserie), although the taste was more for an imagined idea of Chinese decoration. Long-case clocks, of course, were an entirely European invention. The case is lined inside with paper stamped with Chinese scenes on a gilt ground, to increase its appeal and suit the varnished ('japanned') outer case that was a European imitation of Asian lacquer, using varnishes and gold leaf, rather than traditional lacquer. Joseph Davis seems to have specialized in clocks with such colourful cases. He would have made the clockwork and would have bought in the case from a cabinet maker who specialized in making such cases. The donor of this clock said that it had been bought in Spain and it may have been sent there when it was new. London-made clocks were esteemed throughout Europe and were particularly popular in Spain and the Scandinavian states.

W.29:1to3-1911