#15013, Benjamin VULLIAMY

From an early age Benjamin had shown interest in pursuing his father's career.  As an adult, he began to earn a reputation as a builder of mantel clocks, decorative timepieces that adorned the halls of high society.  One such, combined with Derby Porcelain is to be found today in the Derby Museum.  His talent earned him a royal appointment in 1773, through which he came to receive an endowment of ?150 a year as George III's King's Clockmaker.  Around 1780 he was commissioned to build the Regulator Clock, the main timekeeper of the King's Observatory Kew, which served as the official London time until 1884 when the Greenwich Royal Observatory assumed both roles.  The Regulator Clock is now in the Science Museum in London.