24x19x13 In.

Signed James McGregor, Edinburgh, this skeleton clock is enclosed in a pitched-top glazed wooden case, with a silvered Roman numeral dial, exposed brass clock movement, and a bell mounted above on twin plinth supports. The case allows the mechanism to be seen in full, its wheels and gears forming part of the display.

Skeleton clocks gained popularity during the Industrial Revolution, when “seeing was believing” and households delighted in the sight of machinery at work. Their appeal lay in the spectacle of the workings — the steady swing of the pendulum and the turning wheels in motion. Edinburgh was a centre of skilled clockmaking, and McGregor’s signature places this example within that tradition. Through European trading houses, such clocks also reached Bombay, where they became valued possessions of mercantile families and signs of cosmopolitan taste.

This clock was wound faithfully through four generations of the Mangaldas family, its rhythm remembered as part of the household’s daily life. A lived heirloom, it carries forward the passage of time across generations.

As Is, Non-exportable

Provenance: The Estate of Mangaldas Nathubhai