Eighteenth-century Russia followed Europe's fascination with Chinese art and a large number of gilt-bronze chinoiserie items painted with colour enamels were commissioned for the Chinese Hall and the Chinese Theatre of Tsarskoye Selo. In this clock, figures of mandarins nonchalantly smoke their pipes on a first-floor balcony, while a Chinese lady sits on a swing decorated with dragon heads that doubles as the clock's pendulum. (©The Tsarskoye Selo State Museum-Preserve, St Petersburg, 2014.)   Close