An impressive and important Imꦆperial Chinese ormolu, silver-plated, enamel, paste-set and carved soapstone striki༺ng elephant clock with music and automation

Guangzhou Workshops, Qianlong Period (1736-1795), Late 18^th Century

Dial:🍸 red paste-set bezel, Roman and Arabic indexes

Movement:&n♍bsp;triple chain fusée with suspended verge escapement, hour strikes on one bell, hourly music plays via pinned barrel on a nest of eight bells and twelve hammers, four musical tunes selected by an arbor to the rear with gearing to the automata above

Case: base with foliate cast plinth raised on scroll feet and multi-coloured paste gems with gadroom moulding above, decorated to all sides with red and green floral enamels and gold foils on a translucent blue enameled ground, the front set with the dial and multi-coloured paste-set and mirror backed automaton catherine-wheels, the sides with pierced automaton panels painted with trees and flowers against a backdrop of automaton waterfalls, t🧸he back with three silk-backed pierced and engraved ormolu circular panels and applied with paper inventory label 10. The middle with a ဣpaste-set gallery with eight small vases to the angles, with panels of foil-backed green glass mounted with foliate set with paste gems. The upper level with paste-set balustrade and naturalistically modelled repoussé silver platform, the four corners mounted with paste-set whirligigs. Centered by a soapstone elephant embellished with paste inset foliate and flora-chased saddle, bridle and body-straps, mounted on top is a blue enamel baluster vase decorated with cloisonné enamel bands around the neck and base, the vase surmounted by paste-set whirligig and fronted by a mirror-backed automaton paste-set flowerhead and a silk-backed pierce and engraved circular panel

Automata: hourly, or by pulling a later cord to the underside of the case, the two catherine-wheels revolve, spiral-twist glass rods to the side panels turn to simulate falling water, the five whirligigs spin and the flowerhead to the front o🐼f the case revolves, all while music plays

Size: 73.5 cm high x 36 cm wide x 26 cm deep

Sotheby's Hong Kong is thrilled to present the following five clocks of spectacular quality. The clocks are property formerly owned by the famous private Nesu Museum in Japan and are made by both Chinese craftsman and Important European clockmakers. These Qing clocks a🧔re of the finest quality and represent the cultural exchanges between China and the West and illustrate the progress and development made during this period.

The Wanli Emperor (1573-1620) was very interested in decorative chiming clocks and he displayed them on his Imperial table. In 1601, Matteo Ricci (1552-1610), was a Jesuit missionary of the Roman church and was finally allowed entry into Beijing. To pay🅰 tribute to the Emperor, the It🌊alian dressed in Chinese robes used Western devices including two chime clocks to open the gate of the Forbidden City.

Missionaries believed that paying tribute with these mechanical objects was an important way to please Chinese Emperors and the Qing Dynasty had the same passion for these Western objects as their Ming predecessors. During the Qianlong Emperor’s reign (1736-1795), Western timep൲ieces were extremely popular, not only were they collected by the Imperial Palace, but they were also purchased and treasured by higher officials, rich merchants and scholars. Collecting these items became an important way for 💯Chinese people to understand Western culture.

The devices and clocks came from two sources. Some were from European clock makers, either gifted by missionaries or purchased by the government or local officials, others were made in China. There was a clock works👍hop in the Palace that had about 100 craftsmen who were responsible for the manufacture and repair of the pieces supervised by the missionaries. There were over 1,000 timepieces in the Qing Palace that 😼were made in China and imported from European countries. These timepieces are part of the history of cultural exchanges between Chinese and Western cultures in the 17th Century. It was during this period that all missionaries entering had a single purpose, that purpose was to increase the awareness of Catholicism. The timepieces that they bought with them were tools to gain favour with the Rulers in China, in hope that restrictions on missionaries activities would cease to exist. The Chinese at this time knew very little about the outside world. Christianity in an attempt to establish direct contact with the Emperor and to persuade him to recognise the new religion used European timepieces, and these timepieces played a very critical role.

China’s contact with the outside world grew tremendously during the Qing Dy༺nasty with foreign envoys arriving in China one after the other. They carried gifts to be presented to the Chinese Emperors and carefully selected only articles that illustrated the progress of Science and the Art in Europe. Clocks, a product of the technological achievements in the West were naturally the perfect gifts.

These gifts best illustrated the envois level of modernization. Not only did the clocks display the month, date and hour, they could also show how the Universe worked, could strike the hours and quarters and even play beautiful tunes. These clocks at the time were extremely costly to produce. In addition to the missionaries, Guangdong and Fujian Officials 🍸also presented clocks and timepieces to the Imperial Court. These two provinces were major areas for import and export trade and a lot of the Western device𝔍s were acquired there.

The following 5 clocks are from the Imperial collection of the Qing court. They illustrate superb craꩵftsmanship and demonstrate super technical merit. They portray a terrific blend of Chinese and Western influences and serve as examples of important exchanges between China andꦉ the West during the Qing dynasty.