Dominic Gwynn____________________________________________

THE CHARLES CLAY ORGAN CLOCK

IN THE ROYAL COLLECTION (WINDSOR CASTLE)

AND ITS CONNECTION WITH

GEORG FRIDERIC HANDEL

THE MAKER

This notice appeared in The Weekly Journal 8 May 1736:

On Monday, Mr Clay the inventor of the machine watches in the Strand, had the honour of exhibiting to His Majesty at Kensington his surprising musical clock, which gave uncommon satisfaction to all the Royal family present, at which time Her Majesty, to encourage so great an artist, was pleased to order fifty guineas to be expended for numbers in the intended raffle, by which we hear Mr Clay intends to dispose of the said beautiful and complicated machinery.

The whereabouts of this clock appear to be unknown, though it may have been one illustrated in Britten's 1891 edition of his Old Clocks and Watches and their Makers which is supposed to have a list of tunes viz.:

Mr Arcangelo Corelli's twelfth Concerto, 1st, adagio, 2nd, allegro, 3rd saraband, 4th, jigg. The Fugue is the overture of 'Ariadne' (Handel's 1734 opera)

In 1739 Hickford's Room, an early eighteenth century concert venue, moved to Brewer Street, near Piccadily. One of the first events in the new location was a public raffle for a Clay musical clock with music by Handel. A newspaper cutting of 31 December 1743 describes a clock evidently bought for Augusta, wife of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and now in Kensington Palace, unfortunately with most of its movement and all its musical parts missing.

   A DESCRIPTION of a most magnificent and curious MUSICAL MACHINE, CALL'D The temple of the four Grand Monarchies of the World (viz. the Assyrian, the Persian, the Grecian, and the Roman) which were founded by Ninus, Cyrus the Great, Alexander the Great, and Augustus Caesar.
   Begun by the late ingenious MR CHARLES GRAY, and finish'd y Mr PYKE, Clock and Watchmaker, in Bedford-Row, London.
   The whole having cost upwards of 45000l. and is to be seen every day at the corner of Brownlow Street facing Bedford-Row, near Gray's inn, London, from ten 0'Clock in the Morning till Seven in the Evening..........
   (after an extended description of the case with statues and painted friezes)The Musick consists of an agreeable Variety of Pieces, composed by the three great Masters Geminiani, Handel and Corelli; and properly adapted to the machine by mr Geminiani. It performs not only in Concert, but alternatively on several Instruments, in a most surprising manner, exceeding the Performance of the best Hands. Note. The Inside Work may be seen by those who desire it.

The work was completed by John Pyke, who was the father of George Pyke, prolific manufacturer of musical clocks, and master of Samuel Green. The fact that the machine was so elaborate and expensive, and that it was not finished by Clay himself, suggests that it is the instrument mentioned in Clay's obituary, which is the best remembered fact about him in the Gentleman's Magazine Vol.X 1740:

Feb.25. The ingenious Mr Clay, Maker of several Musical Clocks. Three Days before he dy'd he order'd a Musical machine, which had cost him about twenty Years Time, and upwards of 2000l to bring to Perfection, to be beat to pieces, and entirely destroy'd, to prevent further Expence of the Time and Money of anyone who should attempt to finish it after his Death.

THE ORGAN CLOCK

The Widow of the late ingenious Mr CHARLES CLAY, begs Leave to acquaint the Publick
   THAT she hath reserv'd the most curious and valuable of all the Pieces of Clock-Work which her late Husband left behind him, and which with his own Hands he had brought to near Perfection, that he call'd it, from the Figure of the Deity Standing within the Fabrick, the TEMPLE and ORACLE of APOLLO.
   This Machine, for the Perfection of the Musick, the Elegancy of the Structure, and the richness of the materials, far surpasses any Thing of the Kind exhibited either by Mr Clay in his Life-Time, or any other; and which the Widow believes the Curious, who shall do her the Honour to see and consider it, will readily allow.
   It is impossible to describe this beautiful Piece of Mechanism in the Compass of an Advertisement, the solid Parts of the Fabrick are of Silver gilt, the Pillars, as also the Doors and other Lights into it, are made of Rock-Crystal, curiously engrav'd and adorn'd with Silver Mouldings, Capitals and Bases. It is embellish'd with a great Number of solid Silver Figures both within and without, most of which are gilt; and the whole is cover'd with a most curious Foliage of embellish'd Work pierced and emboss'd in so beautiful a Style and Manner, as renders it exceeding difficult to convey to the apprehension any Just Idea of it, nor is it to be had otherwise than by viewing the Piece of Work itself.
   Mrs Clay therefore humbly hopes that Gentlemen and Ladies, encouragers of Art and Exquisite Workmanship, will not think a Shilling ill bestow'd for the Sight of so Extraordinary a Performance, and the Hearing of such excellent Musick, the whole exceeding, by many Degrees, any thing ever exhibited to publick View in any Nation, or by any Artist whatsoever.
   Remov'd over-against Cecil-Street in the Strand, where it is to be seen at One Shilling each.

The case is made in three stages:
·a marbled pedestal, containing the organ
·a plinth decorated with mouldings and silver rococo strpwork, containing the clock
·and on these a rock crystal casket, decorated with elaborate silver-gilt, filigree enamel and crystal columns, surmounted by a gilt bronze statue of St George and the Dragon.

The parts were evidently put together by Clay, using a rock crystal casket, for which he must have paid a great deal, and other decorative craftsmen. The casket is signed (in pencil, in German)

I, Master Melchior Baumgartner, have made this casket in Augsburg, and covered it with silver in the year 1664c
The quality of the enamel filigree work on the flat areas, and the engraved scenes on the crystal, on both surfaces, is beyond belief. St George was added during George IV's rebuilding of Windsor Castle, and in Victoria's time, the casket became a reliquary for the Bible of Gordon of Khartoum. The organ was repaired (bellows repaired by A. Milhouse 25 october 1904) just after Victoria's death. Since then, the bits have been dispersed around the place, and were only collected together recently by the clock repairer at Windsor Castle, Peter Ashworth. He repaired the clock and barrel mechanism, the Royal Collection furniture restoration workshop repaired the case, and Stuart Dobbs, who works for Goetze & Gwynn, repaired the organ. It is now on public display in the State Apartments at Windsor. Whether Mrs Clay sold the clock we do not know. Croft Murray (1950) mentions a bill of sale from George Pyke to Augusta, Princess of Wales, on 8 June 1759, for 'an organ clock in a Black Case with Glass Columns', priced £94 10s. though that doe not seem enough for this piece of furniture. There are pictures of the organ at Kensington Palace in the early nineteenth century, in the Green Drawing Room at Windsor Castle c. 1830 and in the Grand Corridor at Windsor Castle c.1900.

THE ORGAN

There are three stops, Open Diapason, Stop Diapason and Flute. There are twenty pipes in two octaves from c1 to c3; apart from the white notes, f#1 BB1 c#2 f#2 bb2. The pitch is a major third above a1=421Hz (the usual eighteenth century concert pitch) at 18 C. The tuning is likely to have been one quarter mean tone. The open pipes are tuned with lead flaps, but they may originally have been cut to length, as the insides of some have been whittled away with a knife.

Apart from the pipes, the organ is made of quartered oak. The upperboards are held with brass bolts. The key action is made from meticulously worked steel and brass, in the same style as the brass barrel and movements. The barrel and its carriage are made of brass. The bellows is a single fold reservoir with two parallel feeders beneath and a waste pallet between them. When there is more wind produced than needed, the movement of the waste pallet often produces a dithering effect on the music, which is unavoidable without altering the mechanism. This in spite of a rack and pinion for regulating the speed of the feeders in relation to the barrel speed.

THE MUSIC

The music on the dial in the clock, which changes with the choice of tune; these give the following titles:

Allegro, Presto, Gigue, Allegro, Sonata, Allegro, Air, Air, Air, Air

These tunes have been identified by Anthony Hick:

1 and 3 are in another set of musical clock songs now in the British Library. They are in the writing of Handel's amanuensis, John Christopher Smith, and were part of the collection given to Charles Jennens by Lord Aylesford. There are two sets, this one of eleven tunes, inscribed 'Tunes for Mr Clay's Musical Clock', the second of seven tunes, first identified by Barclay Squire in 1919. 2 in the first set is 'A Voluntary or A Flight of Angels', evidently written for the clock. These two tunes, 1 and 3, and 1 and 3 in the second set, may also be specially composed for the musical clock. 7 and 8 are from BL set one, 7 an arrangement of the air In Mar Tempestoso from Arianna (Handel, 1733), 8 an arrangement of Dell' onda ai fieri moti fromOttone (Handel, 1723)

5 9 and 10 are from a set of ten tunes on a Clay clock sold at Christie's in 1972, now in paris; none identified further. 6 is Va godendo from Serse (Handel, 1738), not otherwise known as a clock piece. 2 and 4 were unidentified in 1983.

Sources:
Barclay Squire, The Musical Quarterly, Vol.V,1919
Croft Hurray, Country Life, 31.12.1948, 21.4.1950
Hugh Roberts in Country Life 23.11.1995

Return to Index Page for this issue