A RARE CHINESE MARKET GILDED BRONZE EQUESTRIAN TIMEPIECE

A RARE CHINESE MARKET GILDED BRONZE EQUESTRIAN TIMEPIECE
QIANLONG/JIAQING C.1780-1800

Cast in the form of a stallion, standing with his head lowered and slightly tilted to one side, the front right and rear left legs raised; his back with tasselled trappings and leaf scrolls supporting a thirty hour timepiece by Samuel Biddulph, No.3661, the white enamel dial within red and white paste brilliants, with an eagle finial and a pale yellow marble rectangular plinth, 27cm. (29.5cm overall).

Provenance: from the collection of The Hon. Nellie Ionides, (1883-1962), of Buxted Park, sold by Sotheby & Co., London, The Ionides Collections, Part I, 31st May 1963, lot 50.

Published:
H Alan Lloyd, English Clocks for the Chinese Market, The Antique Collector, January / February 1951, where the above example and nine further clocks from the Ionides Collection are illustrated. Also Christopher Hussey, Buxted Park, The Home of Mr and the Hon. Mrs Basil Ionides, Country Life, 18th August 1950, p.519, where this equestrian timepiece is illustrated on the mantelpiece in the Chinese room together with others, including one in the form of a stag, (see overleaf).

Cf. Sotheby & Co., London, The Ionides Collections Part II, 1st November 1963, lot 13 for a related musical clock by James Cox in the form of a stag, and lot 14 for a related watch stand by Joseph Silver, cast as a lion. Later sold, Sotheby's New York, 25th September 2012, lot 495.

The Honourable Nellie Ionides (1883-1962), was the daughter of the Shell Oil magnet Sir Marcus Samuel, 1st Viscount Bearsted, and Lord Mayor of London, 1902-3. After her first husband, Walter Henry Levy, died in 1923, Nellie married the architect Basil Ionides and they lived at the fine Palladian estate in Sussex, Buxted Park, where they were great entertainers and friends of George V and Queen Mary. Nellie amassed an important collection of Chinese art, part of which was left to the British Museum, and part of which was sold in four sales at Sotheby’s in 1963 and 1964. For further details about Nellie Ionides as a collector, see R Davids & D Jellinek, Provenance, pp.251-255.

清乾隆/嘉慶 銅鍍金馬馱鼓式鐘

來源: The Hon. Nellie Ionides (1883-1962) 收藏, 購於倫敦蘇富比，1963年5月31日，The Ionides Collections, 第一部分，編號50。

出版：H Alan Lloyd, English Clocks for the Chinese Market, The Antique Collector, 1950年一/二月, 上述的馬馱鼓式鐘和Ionides收藏中的另外九個時鐘都有在圖錄中記載; 另見Christopher Hussey所著, Buxted Park, The Home of Mr and the Hon. Mrs Basil Ionides，發表於1950年8月18日的Country Life雜誌的第519頁，該書亦記載了這個馬馱鼓式鐘及其他的時鐘收藏，當中包括一個鹿形時鐘(見後頁)。