This bronze figure of a rhinoceros is attributed to James Cox, the celebrated London jeweler, clock-maker and goldsmith who created the legendary Peacock Clock in the Hermitage, St Petersburg.  Cox was renowned for his elaborate and intricate automated clocks. A clock mounted on a similar rhinoceros as the present example is in the Palace Museum, Beijing.  Marks on the back of the present rhinoceros would indicate that it was intended as a similar clock mount. Coxed modeled these figures after Albrecht Dürer’s renowned woodblock print (1515) of an Indian rhinoceros based on verbal descriptions.

The clock and watch industry of the late seventeenth and eighteenth century was dominated by the British and China's Qing-dynasty emperors were avid collectors of elaborate clocks manufactured in London and also the Swiss Jura. These European clocks inspired clock-making in China in the Qianlong period (1736 - 1796).

Cox's clocks with their elaborate automata, intricate detail, fine movements and rich materials were very popular when they were first introduced to the Chinese court in the mid 1760s. There still are 19 clocks by James Cox in the Palace Museum in Beijing, including a clock on the back of an identical although bigger rhino to the one illustrated here. See Pagani 2001. Fig. 23.