Imperial Tribute Style Table Clock with Automata, Double Gourd and Quarter Striking

The richly gilded case rests on four elaborately ornamented scrolled bracket feet, joined by pierced aprons with garlands of leaves and berries, supported at each corner by columns cast with opulent foliate
scrolls, flowers and fruit terminating in four grotesque animal heads. The bezel of the dial has red and white paste-set gems. The spandrels are adorned with applied clear paste-set flower heads amidst trailing leafy sprays set with green paste-set brilliants, surmounted by a painted automaton scene depicting a Chinese garden setting with figures passing over a bridge, all against a mirrored background. The polished side panels are lavishly decorated with applied shell handles within a beaded frame and suspending pierced scrollwork.

The case is surmounted by a pierced foliate balustrade framing a further automaton of spiral twisted glass rods simulating a cascading waterfall, supporting an elaborate gilded double gourd vase decorated with scrolling flowers and leafy sprays, the lower part of drum shape housing the automaton with ten paste-set flower-heads centered by a Catherine's wheel against a translucent blue guilloche enamel ground, all turning and revolving simultaneously with the striking work, the upper part similarly decorated with scrollwork and set to the front with the auspicious Chinese characters 'da ji' (Great Prosperity) in vibrant red paste stones, the sides with tied drapery in translucent blue enamel crowned by a white and red paste-set revolving pineapple form finial.

The spring barrel movement contained within the lower portion drives the automaton work on the vase. The case is now fitted with a late 19th century three-train fusee movement with anchor escapement, trip repeat quarter striking on a nest of eight bells and striking the hours on an additional bell, the automaton functions all driven by the striking train.