BY JAMES COX, LONDON, CIRCA 1770

James Cox, the celebrated London jeweller and goldsmith, specialised in lavish and charming objects of vertu. Cox worked in London from at least 1757 when he is first mentioned at 103 Shoe Lane. Around 1765 he began producing sumptuous toys with integrated watches and automaton, in the form of miniature cabinets or bureaux made of agate and gold cage-work decorated with animals, birds, pagodas, and Chinese figures, which greatly appealed to the Asian market. The St. James's Chronicle reported in 1772 that a large collection of his work 'struck the Chinese with so much Astonishment, that the whole was purchased for the Emperor, and no other was then admired'.

This new found fame led to many of his pieces being made for export to India and China, where they were known as 'sing-songs'. By 1773 his workshop was employing some 1000 men and exported nearly £750,000 worth of goods between 1766 and 1772. One of his most famous creations was the Peacock Clock made for Prince Potemkin for his Tauride Palace, now in the Winter Palace, St. Petersburg and the life-size swan automaton with silver plumage now in the Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle. Despite it all, Cox appears to have been constantly on the verge of bankruptcy and during his career James Christie held a numbered of sales of his stock in trade. In 1773 Cox published a catalogue of his major automata to be disposed of by lottery, and in 1778 he was declared bankrupt. He appears to be dead by 1792, as on 16 February of that year Christie's held a further sale of his estate (C. le Corbeiller, 'James Cox: A Biographical Review', The Burlington Magazine, June, 1970, pp. 351-358).