English fire gilt complex pair cased coach clock Circa 1775

Coach clock with self striking and repeating hours
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A fine and rare, numbered, complex pair cased coach clock with self striking and repeating hours and stoppable center seconds, made for the Chinese market, by Timothy Williamson in London, England, circa 1775. The fire gilt and pierced pair cased watch has a face set with jewels and pearls, the second case is also pierced and has a cartouche with grotesque face on side, the case rim with lever to stop the center seconds and another lever to mute the striking train and the bell. The white enamel dial has Arabic five minute and Arabic hour numerals with gold spade hands and center seconds with a black metal hand. The movement has a splendid fire gilt verge escapement and self striking and repeating hours.
The movement is signed.
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Diameter: 64 mm
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Weight: 181 g
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Signed: Tim^y Williamson, London
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This impressive coach clock is a distinctive example of watches produced for export to China, a market Williamson was cultivating prominent relationships. Timothy Williamson was trained as a goldsmith and probably made the design and engraving of his distinctive cases on his own. The movements, however, were probably supplied by William Hughes, with whom Williamson was closely associated, as Roger Smith has made clear in an article for Antiquarian Horology (# 5, Vol. 30, March 2008, p. 643).
In Britten’s book “Old Clocks and Watches and Their Makers,” Timothy Williamson is listed as operating in London from 1769 to 1788, first on Fleet Street and later on Great Russell Street. Amongst others, he also supplied the Chinese Emperor. A visually comparable watch by Timothy Williamson was sold in Geneva auction in 2000, but the “common version” without striking train. Another comparable Timothy Williamson watch no. 2779 was sold in Christies auction New York in 2015.
The watch comes from one of the most important German pocket watch collections.
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Williamson
Timothy Williamson is recorded as a London watch and clockmaker active between 1769 and 1790. He specialized in the production of automata and decorative watches and clocks for the Chinese Market and is known to have made pieces for the Emperor Qianlong and became the “Watchmaker of the Emperor of China”.
For a listing of his work for China, see Catherine Pagani, Eastern Magnificence & European Ingenuity, Clocks of Late Imperial China.