Ormolu Quarter-Striking and Musical Table Clock with Automaton Figures

The top drum case is surmounted by a stylized European huntsman figure. The square gilt-bronze base has sea-dragon corner mounts and applied pierced and engraved mounts to the front. The base also houses a musical and automata movement playing on eight bells with fourteen hammers. Two painted ivory automaton figures perform: one is a female acrobat who flips around a bar. The other is a magician who uses an ormolu cover to hide part of a magic trick (now lost).

This is an excellent example of the clocks produced in the Suzhou workshops of Eastern China in the mid 19th century. Incorporating more modern methods, there was significant division of labor to produce these extremely complicated clocks containing musical movements and automata mechanisms.