Musical Mantel Clock with Quarter Strike and Center Seconds

This fine gilt-brass clock exhibits the particular style of enameling, paste-gemstones on the dial plate and sweep seconds hand that were popular with the Chinese market. This clock was formerly in the Abbott Guggenheim Collection, which displayed clocks from their collection at the Smithsonian Museum and the Bavarian National Museum. The clock plays four tunes on ten bells using seventeen hammers.

John Mottram worked at Warden Court, Clerkenwell Close, London, between 1780 and 1811. He was one of the English makers who made fine quality musical automaton clocks for the Eastern markets. His work is sometimes taken for the work of James Cox, and they may have worked together at some point.