Lot Essay
This clock, designed in the antique manner promoted by C. Percier and P. Fontaine's Recueil des Décorations Intérieures, 1802, incorporates an Egyptian Isis-priestess caryatid that corresponds to a pair of ormolu-girdled bronze figure candelbra executed in Paris around 1805 and displayed on the mantelpiece of Queen Karoline's Salon at the Residenz, Munich. This figure is mounted on an orb in the manner of Nike candelabra displayed in the corners of the same room (H. Ottomeyer, P. Pröschel, et.al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich 1986, vol. I, p. 333, fig. 5.2.12. and 5.2.13.).
The figure also relates to those of candelabra signed by Claude-François Rabiat (d. 1815) of rue Beaubourg (D. Ledoux-Lebard, 'Rabiat' L'Object d'Art, April 1991, pp. 88 and 89). A similar cartel clock with a Greek maiden standing on a small bracket and supporting on her head a clock surmounted by an eagle is in the Nordiska Museet, Stockholm (S. Wallin, Nordiska Museets Möbler fran Svenska Herrmanshem, Lund, 1979, vol. III, p. 188, fig. 1281).
The figure also relates to those of candelabra signed by Claude-François Rabiat (d. 1815) of rue Beaubourg (D. Ledoux-Lebard, 'Rabiat' L'Object d'Art, April 1991, pp. 88 and 89). A similar cartel clock with a Greek maiden standing on a small bracket and supporting on her head a clock surmounted by an eagle is in the Nordiska Museet, Stockholm (S. Wallin, Nordiska Museets Möbler fran Svenska Herrmanshem, Lund, 1979, vol. III, p. 188, fig. 1281).