Discover the intricate world behind a remarkable royal pedestal clock—a floor standing masterpiece rich with Scottish heritage, automata displays, musical mechanisms, and painted landscapes.
Created in John Smith’s workshop in the early 1800’s, the clock features 3 dials and an open back to watch the mechanisms. The three dials show a clockwork display of George III and his family, lunar and tidal phases and a musical dial, with a selection of 16 tune titles, including ‘God Save the King’. Later in its life it was given as a wedding gift to the future King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.
Join us behind the scenes as conservators undertake a once in a lifetime project as they carefully revive the clock’s complex movements, address aging materials, and preserve its historic components for future generations. Through expert conservation, we uncover how this extraordinary object continues to enchant more than two centuries after it was made.
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We are looking today at this floor standing pedestal clock.
So a pedestal clock is a clock that stands on its own on a pedestal in the center of a room
being able to display in this case its three dials and a very nice opening on the back where
you can see the mechanism working. The primary dial is the time dial as you can see here.
It has got, well, a lovely moon phase indicator. On the moon phase indicator is a tidal indicator
as well. Moving down you've got depictions of the four cornerstones of the British Empire.
You've got justice, music, commerce and Britannia depicted and we believe the top and bottom
landscapes were painted by Alexander Naismith who's a relatively well-known Scottish painter.
Finally on the left hand side we have got the automaton dial which is a rendition of the
horse guard at Whitehall. When the marches are playing the royal family will parade around
and underneath them the horse guard will parade with them. The soldiers reflect the northern
Scottish heritage of the clock as they are the North British Dragoons or the Scots Greys.
One of the very unique features of this clock is it automatically changes the tune that it's
playing. So every three hours it will just play the melody, so the inner ring, and then on the
third hour it will play the marches and when it plays the marches it will automatically advance
so it will go from one tune to another and then cycle through over the course of a 24-hour period.
This clock by John Smith was finished in 1804 in the little village of Pittenweem in Fife. We know
this clock was sold at Christie's in 1900. Shortly after that this clock went back to Scotland so
Mr William B Smith, a clockmaker in Glasgow, became the owner of the clock in the 1920s.
At some point this clock made its way to the city council of Glasgow who gave it to the Duke
and Duchess of York as their wedding present. The Duke of Duchess of York who later became
King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, later the Queen Mother. So this clock was fully revived
by the previous horological conservators and allowed them to make the clock strike
and play the music again. However, over the years that the clock has been working with us
in the Royal Collection, the lubricants have started decaying and the clock was due in for
conservation and cleaning. In the process of conservation and cleaning we found a couple of
faulty materials inside the clock and the decision was taken to replace these components.
The original components will be kept and will be saved for the future and if any more safe,
stable repairs can be done in the future to that original component we are able to replace that in
full without removing any material. Working on a piece like this is a very special opportunity,
one that will only pass by once in a lifetime. It's an honour to work on pieces like this
and one that I will think of for a very, very long time.
