658,000 HKD
James Cox, made for the Chinese Market, circa 1770. Extremely fine and rare enamelled brass and22K gold, ruby set telescope with built-in watch. Three-body with ruby set bezel, the red, green and yellow brass flinqué enamel tube, overlaid with a very fine gold open-work rocaille decoration of chased flowers and griffins, enhanced by six cartouches with various blue flinqué enamelled animals, painted over a hatched ground. White enamel with Roman numerals and outer Arabic minutes ring. Rose-cut diamond set Louis XV hands. Hinged gilt brass full plate with conical pillars, fusee with chain, verge escapement, plain brass three-armalance, flat balance spring and English gilt brass cock.Signed on the dial.Dim. 235 x 25 mm. Notes James Cox (d. 1791)By training as a metal-plate worker, James Cox was established in his own business by 1749, at the latest, and described himself as goldsmith on a trade-card datable to 1751. The shop at the Golden Urn, Raquet Court, Fleet Street, where he dealt in jewellery, gold and silver objects and precious stones, was to remain the mainstay of Cox’s business throughout his career, however much he later diversified. From 1756-59, Cox was in partnership with Edward Grace. Exactly when he began to organise thconstruction of luxurious, complicated musical and automaton clocks and watches, studded with precious stones and fine woods, intended for export to the Ottoman, Indian and Chinese empires, is unknown but, since the first trace of such activi
Auctioneer:
Antiquorum
Date:
2000-06-05
