A Victorian presentation coromandel desk stand, by William Gibbs Rogers, the enamelled dial inscribed 'James Hux, 20 Down Street, Piccadilly' with Roman numerals, with silver bezels and backplate inscribed 'Time fleets Eternity is at hand A Memorial of grateful Attachment from H.A.B. died at Clifton 21st Octr 1852', and three further inscriptions to the back and inside of the backplate, maker's mark for Charles Watts, London 1837, the dial mounted in a carved column, with deeply carved swags and surmounted with a bird, mounted with a pair of silver-mounted inkwells, maker's marks for R & S Garrard & Co., London 1852, with a pen well, the base stamped 'W. G. Rogers', 34cm wide 15cm deep 34cm high Provenance: The David Morris Collection. James Hux is recorded in 'Watchmakers and Clockmakers of the World, Volume 2', by Brian Loomes, as working in London 1851-1863. William Gibbs Rogers (1792-1875) earned his reputation as an expert wood-carver, working in and imitating the style of Grinling Gibbons (1648-1721). He exhibited at the 1851 Great Exhibition, where his carvings are described as 'studies from original fragments by Grinling Gibbons' ('The Crystal Palace Exhibition, Illustrated Catalogue', facsimile ed., New York, 1970, p.9). Rogers was patronised by Queen Victoria, who granted him a Civil List pension for his contribution to the revival of the standard of ornamental wood-carving. He was awarded an important Royal Commission, 'as they consider him as the best person qualified to be entrusted with those parts of the woodwork of the House of Lords in which great richness and delicacy of execution are required'.