This monumental longcase clock, standing over eight feet in height, is a rare survival of mid-eighteenth-century taste. The case is richly japanned and painted, with applied decoupage panels depicting narrative scenes from Don Quixote, a series by Gerand van der Gucht after Charles Antoine Coypel, dated 1725, bordered by floral detailing.

The base displays a print from the collection ‘The Humours of Hob at the Country Wake in the Opera of Flora’ by Claude Dubosc, after John Laguerre, entitled ‘Hob’s Petition to Sir Thomas to Keep Him out of the Well’, a depiction of a contemporary folk tale in which a bumpkin, Hob, pleads with a gentleman, Sir Thomas, to be spared a watery fate.

The side panels decorated with japanned scenes of oriental life, set against blue-toned lacquer grounds. The whole case presents a a rich and varied surface of striking visual and tonal depth.

The arched brass dial is signed H. Baker, Appleby, and is a rare example of a ‘month-duration’ movement. Of further interest is the rolling moon dial with painted anthropomorphic full moon.

The decorative scheme reflects the period’s fascination with literature and the oriental exotic, associated with japanning. The use of Don Quixote, Europe’s most celebrated early modern novel, is particularly resonant, embodying themes of adventure and folly that appealed strongly in the eighteenth-century. Furthermore, the layering of decoupage with japanned surfaces here achieves a distinctive meeting of narrative art and ornamental finish.

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