This is the final feature in the series focusing on the Greatest Horologists You’ve Never Heard Of which showcases the incredible clock and watchmakers that made some of the finest pieces primarily during the Golden Age of English Clock and Watchmaking.
James Cox (c.1723-1800) was a British jeweller, goldsmith and entrepreneur and the proprietor of Cox’s Museum. Cox produced lavishly ornamented automata for trade with the Far East, first with India and then with China, where the reception of his ‘toys’ or ‘sing-songs’, as the Chinese are believed to have called them, was at first a huge success.
James Cox was an extraordinary Gentleman living in 18th century London. This was a time of great opulence with the wealthiest showing their status through objects they commissioned and owned. Cox was a clockmaker, jeweller, and entrepreneur known for creating elaborate and decorative timepieces, automata, and mechanical curiosities. He gained fame for his luxury goods, which were highly sought after by the elite. Cox’s work blended mechanical innovation with exquisite craftsmanship, producing items that were not just functional but also ornamental and artistic.
Cox’s career as a jeweller began as early as 1751, and his automata were designed by leading artists including Johann Zoffany and Joseph Nollekens. In the 1760s, John Joseph Merlin became his apprentice. Though he declared himself a goldsmith, he employed several jewellers and manufacturers who would have done much of the work.
This cabinet is an excellent example of an exquisite item made by Cox and bearing his signature. On its doors are enamelled personifications of Winter and Summer after compositions of the Four Seasons by the British painter Robert Pyle (act. 1761–66). Additional scenes are based on engravings after François Boucher (1703–1770) and Jean-Antoine Watteau (1670–1733). With characteristic inventiveness, Cox included a hidden drawer above the more obvious drawers inside; a jewelled button on the back of the cabinet opens the secret drawer.
On Cox’s trade card (below) bearing the London address At the Sign of the Golden Urn, he proclaimed himself as a goldsmith who “Makes great variety of curious wares in gold, silver and other metals. Also, amber, pearl, tortoiseshell and curious stones.” Yet Cox seems to have spent most of his career as an entrepreneur, exporter and proprietor of his ‘Museum’, and in the early 1770s he claimed to employ between 800 and 1,000 workers.
Cox was firmly associated with the production and export of large, elaborate musical clocks, mostly intended for the Southeast Asian market. The clockwork involved in some of these machines could be incredibly sophisticated. He assembled an unprecedented network of independent craftsmen to supply the East with an unrivalled number of innovative and opulent timepieces. Most of his work includes automata clock mechanisms typically adorned with gold, precious stones, and intricate designs, intended to showcase both wealth and technical mastery. His creations were extraordinary, even by today’s standards and considered marvels of engineering and artistry.
The Peacock Clock is an automaton featuring three life-sized mechanical birds. It was manufactured by James Cox in the second half of the 18th century, and through the influence of Grigory Potemkin, it was acquired by Catherine the Great in 1781. Today, it’s a prominent exhibit in the collection of the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg.
Cox made exceptional pieces that were exported across the globe. He boasted a clientele of the most influential and wealthy including Chinese Emperors, Kings of Europe, Maharajas in India and Sultans of the Ottoman Empire. This wonderful mid 18th century agate-panelled and silver-mounted musical ormolu table clock with moonphase indication was once owned by King Farouk of Egypt. It sold for £385,250 (estimate £150,000 to £250,000) at Bonhams, London in 2012 (above).
Originally one of a pair, this automaton was commissioned by the English East India Company for presentation to the emperor of China. The chariot’s wheels are driven by a spring, and tiny levers activate the whirligig held in the lady’s left hand and the wings of the bird in her right.
Cox’s Museum
Cox’s Museum (often referred to as ‘Cox’s Mechanical Museum’) officially opened in February 1772 in Spring Gardens, near Charing Cross, in central London. It was intended from the beginning to create a market for the sale of Cox’s items. The museum closed in the December of the same year but remained open for his lottery exhibitions to sell off the extraordinary items in the space until 1775.
Cox’s Museum was the talk of London when it opened in 1772, a riot of brilliance, movement and sound, and an accumulation of bejewelled automata. In spite of the substantial entry fee of half a guinea – around 50p (£65 in today’s money), the museum immediately became one of London’s most fashionable destinations.
“A peacock screeched and spread its tail when the hour struck, while a cock crowed and a cage with an owl inside revolved and twelve bells rang. A silver swan with an articulated neck glided across a surface of artificial water, sixteen elephants supported a pair of seven-foot-high temples adorned with 1,700 pieces of jewellery, a chronoscope inlaid with 100,000 precious stones evidently needed no animal guise.”
Excerpt from Robert Altick, ‘The shows of London’, 1978, pp.69-72
This engraving of a ticket for ‘Mr Cox’s Museum’ showing Muse seated on ground, playing the lyre; a putto flying above her; on the left, Science standing, holding a compass and a board was engraved by leading printmaker, Francesco Bartolozzi – a founder member of the Royal Academy – would have been ‘hottest tickets in town’ at the time.
The museum was an excellent example of the type of public spectacle that combined art, science, and entertainment, appealing to the Georgian era’s fascination with technological wonders. Cox’s Museum showcased various ornate and meticulously crafted automaton figures, many of which were made from gold, silver, and precious stones. These automata were mechanical devices designed to move or perform tasks, such as playing musical instruments or mimicking the movements of living creatures like birds and insects. The pieces were often equipped with tiny gears and clockwork mechanisms, blending artistic beauty with technological innovation.
One of the most famous pieces in Cox’s collection was a life-size mechanical peacock (now in the Hermitage Museum), a highly intricate automaton that spread its wings and tail, moved its head, and even made sounds resembling those of a real peacock. Another celebrated item was the Silver Swan, an automaton that glided over water and gracefully ‘caught’ a fish in its beak, which is still in existence today and displayed at the Bowes Museum in the North of England.
Cox’s collection also reflected the global trade networks of the time, incorporating materials and influences from Asia, particularly from China and India, which added to the exotic appeal of his works. The museum became a must-see attraction for Londoners and tourists alike, drawing in visitors with its blend of artistic craftsmanship and mechanical ingenuity.
Despite the success of Cox’s Museum, Cox petitioned Parliament in 1773 to hold a public lottery sale of all his exhibitions. Cox’s high-risk ventures in the East Asian luxury trade and his mounting debts certainly motivated the lottery and the closure of the museum.
Cox’s lottery was also a ‘grand finale’ that capitalised on the museum’s success. After intense and prolonged publicity, the lottery finally took place in May and June of 1775; however, it does not appear to have been the success for which Cox had hoped and did little to restore his solvency. The value of the lottery was set at £197,500 – a staggering £25 million today according to the Bank of England’s inflation calculator. Over a two-year period 120,000 tickets were sold at the price of one guinea (£1.05). The sale of tickets generated £126,000 and using the same inflation calculation, means the lottery raised around £16 million, some £9 million short of the estimated value.
This engraving of Mr Cox’s Perpetual Motion clock is from Cox’s Lottery catalogue and was one of his ‘star exhibits’. Made by Cox and his chief mechanic, Joseph Merlin, in the 1760s, the Longcase clock’s mechanism used the difference in atmospheric pressure between two jars of mercury to achieve a perpetual motion. This required at least one hundred and fifty pounds (about 68 kg) of mercury. The clock is generally recognised as the first successful attempt to produce a perpetual motion clock in England (an early pre-cursor to Jaeger LeCoultre’s ATMOS clock). After seeing it in Cox’s museum, the astronomer James Ferguson described it as “the most ingenious piece of mechanism I ever saw in my life”.
While Cox’s Museum was a popular sensation for a time, financial troubles eventually forced its closure. He was a central figure in the Georgian period’s fascination with luxury, technology, and exoticism, and his creations continue to be highly valued and celebrated for their artistry and mechanical ingenuity with many surviving today.
The new series The Greatest Collectors of All Time is now available on Worn & Wound.
Hero Image: James Cox at the museum (c.1723-1800). Artist Impression. © MrWatchMaster