Clock by Martin Baffert, France, 1773-1779

V&A — Physical description

Case: The case is in the form of a fluted cylindrical column of oriental alabaster, resting on a square alabaster base heavily mounted with chased ormolu surmounted by a cupid. The dial, set in the column, is flanked by two confronting cocks' heads, which appear to support it by their beaks. There are bands of openwork relief ornament and an oak wreath round the base of the column. Dial: The dial is hinged and has a domed glazed cover. The dial itself is of white enamel, 10.2cm diameter, also slightly domed. The face has erect Arabic hour-numerals in black, and erect Arabic minute numerals in red at 15, 30, 45 and 60, the last effaced by the regulation hole. There are gilt dots at the intervening 5-minute positions, as well as black dots at the remaining minute positions. The dial is signed 'Baffert à Paris'. Winding holes are inside 3.5 and 8.5. The clock has brass hands, both with tails and rectangular piercings. Movement: The clock has circular movement plates, 10.2cm diameter, with plain pillars. There are two going barrels and brass wheels. The going train has a Lepaute-type pin-wheel escapement, the pendulum 26.2cm long overall, with a thin steel rod and disc-shaped flat brass bob 3.2cm diameter, 0.3cm thick. It is regulated by a wound-up cord. The striking train has a locking-plate, with an outside count-wheel allowing for a single strike each half-hour.

V&A — Object history

This clock was among a large collection of furniture, porcelain, metalwork, paintings and books owned by the tailor and businessman John Jones, and kept in cramped conditions at his house at 95, Piccadilly. In his will of 4 December 1879 and in a codicil of 22 January 1880, Jones bequeathed the objects to the South Kensington Museum, and they were transferred there after his death in 1882. The Handbook to the Jones bequest, published in 1883, marvels at the value of the gift, which seems still not to have been displayed to best advantage: 'Probably a large majority of those who visit the Jones collection will be indisposed to believe ... that so limited a space as three not large galleries in the Museum can contain furniture and decorative arts worth no less than a quarter of a million of money'. Jones' principal collecting interests lay in French eighteenth-century furniture and decorative arts, of which this clock is an example, as well as reflecting the late-Victorian love of rich, gilded surfaces and historical artistic styles. Acquired by John Jones before 1882; it is one of sixteen clocks he bequeathed to this museum.