Lot Essay
The C couronné poinçon was a tax-mark used between March 1745 and February 1749 on any alloy containing copper and its presence in this case indicates that this clock was either traded or restored during this period.
This clock appears to represent a later stage in the development of Boulle's Pendules Religieuses (in Spanish relogio means clock). The overall shape of the case and the mount of Cronus is the same as on a regulateur violonné avec tête à pilastres discussed by J.Ronfort in Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. II, pp.493-495, figs. 19a and 19b, which he attributes to André-Charles Boulle and dates to 1672-1675.
Pierre Duchesne, maître in 1675, whose name is inscribed on the clock, was one of Boulle's most important clients at this time during which the manufacture of clock cases was one of the main activities of Boulle's workshop. It is likely that the original movement for this clock was by Duchesne, although there is a clock in the Bibliothèque Mazarine, Paris with movement by Louis Ourry (died circa 1700), which is also a variant of the earlier model and probably dates from the period 1680-1685. A regulateur of the earlier form in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, which has the same Latin inscription on an inverted but similar mount, is signed by Antoine Gaudron (maître in 1675) who was also one of the main buyers of Boulle's clock cases (J. Paul Getty Museum Journal, vol. 17, 1989, p.140, fig. 66).
The main difference between the clock in this lot and the one discussed by Ronfort is the integration of the curve of the dial with the top on the former. This feature appears on a pendule en tête de poupée, also with exactly the same central mount depicting Cronus, illustrated in Tardy, La Pendule Française, 3rd Ed., vol.I, p.106
This clock appears to represent a later stage in the development of Boulle's Pendules Religieuses (in Spanish relogio means clock). The overall shape of the case and the mount of Cronus is the same as on a regulateur violonné avec tête à pilastres discussed by J.Ronfort in Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. II, pp.493-495, figs. 19a and 19b, which he attributes to André-Charles Boulle and dates to 1672-1675.
Pierre Duchesne, maître in 1675, whose name is inscribed on the clock, was one of Boulle's most important clients at this time during which the manufacture of clock cases was one of the main activities of Boulle's workshop. It is likely that the original movement for this clock was by Duchesne, although there is a clock in the Bibliothèque Mazarine, Paris with movement by Louis Ourry (died circa 1700), which is also a variant of the earlier model and probably dates from the period 1680-1685. A regulateur of the earlier form in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, which has the same Latin inscription on an inverted but similar mount, is signed by Antoine Gaudron (maître in 1675) who was also one of the main buyers of Boulle's clock cases (J. Paul Getty Museum Journal, vol. 17, 1989, p.140, fig. 66).
The main difference between the clock in this lot and the one discussed by Ronfort is the integration of the curve of the dial with the top on the former. This feature appears on a pendule en tête de poupée, also with exactly the same central mount depicting Cronus, illustrated in Tardy, La Pendule Française, 3rd Ed., vol.I, p.106