The cast vertical dial with medieval figures you describe was made by Pearson Page c.1931, catalogue number 4212. Their catalogue was illustrated in the Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No.3, pp10-11, 1984. and also in No. 5.
I am not sure if your "clown" dial was made by them too
In the current BSS Bulletin, p.77, Member A. Capon describes a
mass-produced cast metal vertical dial of good quality, citing seven
examples he knows of, five of which he has seen personally. The dial,
elaborately decorated with the arms of what appears to be an English
medieval monarch
