Lot Essay
Louis Jouard, maître in 1724, juré 1741
This clock is a variant of the clocks with Harpy mounts of about 1690 by A.-C. Boulle derived from a print by Jean Bérain now in the Cabinet des Estampes, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. This model is discussed by J. N. Ronfort in 'André-Charles Boulle: die Bronzearbeiten und seine Werkstatt im Louvre', Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich 1986, vol. II, pp.485-488) in which he describes two clocks (Pendules à dôme) in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle as being variants of the Harpy model (illustrated in Tardy, La Pendule Française, Paris, 3rd Ed., vol. I, p. 115 and F.J. Britten, Old Clocks and Watches & their Makers, Woodbridge, rev. edn., n.d., p.307, figs. 504 and 505). These two are of exactly the same model as the Mentmore clock, apart from slight variations in the mounts. Ronfort dates this model to 1695-1700 and points out that it was particularly fashionable around 1700, the probable date of the terracotta model for a mantel clock with domed cresting by Jean Cornu now in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu (G. Wilson, French Eighteenth Century Clocks in the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1976, no. 1)
This clock is a variant of the clocks with Harpy mounts of about 1690 by A.-C. Boulle derived from a print by Jean Bérain now in the Cabinet des Estampes, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. This model is discussed by J. N. Ronfort in 'André-Charles Boulle: die Bronzearbeiten und seine Werkstatt im Louvre', Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich 1986, vol. II, pp.485-488) in which he describes two clocks (Pendules à dôme) in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle as being variants of the Harpy model (illustrated in Tardy, La Pendule Française, Paris, 3rd Ed., vol. I, p. 115 and F.J. Britten, Old Clocks and Watches & their Makers, Woodbridge, rev. edn., n.d., p.307, figs. 504 and 505). These two are of exactly the same model as the Mentmore clock, apart from slight variations in the mounts. Ronfort dates this model to 1695-1700 and points out that it was particularly fashionable around 1700, the probable date of the terracotta model for a mantel clock with domed cresting by Jean Cornu now in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu (G. Wilson, French Eighteenth Century Clocks in the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1976, no. 1)