Beschreibung:

A George III gilt-mounted ebonised organ clock case with a painted and gilt-mounted dial after Ferri and Rysbrack, for a movement by Charles Clay or George Pyke, mid-18th century The 15.5 arched inch dial polychrome painted after Ciro Ferri with The Virgins tending the fire in the Temple of Vesta and applied with gilt-bronze mounts of the seven muses together with Apollo and Diana and truncated obelisks framing the 4.75 break-arch timepiece dial aperture, the case with broken-arch top and brass-bound panels above floral scroll cast mounts applied to the canted angles, the side doors cast with masks, scrolls and musical trophies, on brass bound moulded base with gilt bracket feet, 108cm. (42.5ins) high This case and dial is one of a small group ofknown examples produced in London in the mid-18th centuryfor the musical clock makerCharles Clay and his successor George Pyke. This particular case is most closely associated to the Charles Clay organ clock at Castletown House, Celbridge, County Kildare, Ireland which utilises the same gilt bronze dial mounts the design of which has been attributed to John Michael Rysbrack (1694-1770). Other examples sharing the same dial mounts include one dating to 1765 signed by George Pyke in Temple Newsam House, Leeds; The Gerret Braamkamp Clock by Clay dating to 1736-40 (currently in the Museum SpeelKlok, Utrecht); and the magnificent Temple of the Four Grand Monarchies of The World completed by George Pyke circa 1740 residing in the Rotunda at Kensington Palace. The painted scene is virtually a mirror image ofa painting by Ciro Ferri (1634-1689)in the Galleria Spada, Rome.