A LATE LOUIS XV ORMOLU, PATINATED BRONZE, BARDIGLIO MARBLE AND GRANITE MANTEL CLOCK
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A LATE LOUIS XV ORMOLU, PATINATED BRONZE, BARDIGLIO MARBLE AND GRANITE MANTEL CLOCK

THE CASE BY OSMOND, THE MOVEMENT BY ROBIN, THIRD QUARTER 18TH CENTURY

Details
A LATE LOUIS XV ORMOLU, PATINATED BRONZE, BARDIGLIO MARBLE AND GRANITE MANTEL CLOCK
The case by Osmond, the movement by Robin, third quarter 18th Century
The circular white-enamelled Roman dial with moon phase, week and month escapement and signed 'Robin hger Du Roy', the movement signed 'Robin A Paris No 260', within an arched rectangular panelled case supported by two putti issuing fruiting swags, the stepped plinth base mounted with ribbons and oak-leaf swags, on toupie feet, the case stamped 'OSMOND', the grey granite plinth section added in the 19th Century
18½ in. (47 cm.) high; 23½ in. (60 cm.) wide; 7¾ in. (19½ cm.) deep
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis

Lot Essay

Robert Robin (1742-1799), maître horloger in 1767.

Robert Osmond, maître-fondeur en terre et sable in 1746 and appointed juré des fondeurs in 1756, often signed his pieces. Influenced by the bronzier Caffieri, Osmond was one of the first to interpret the new neo-classical style. His work was much in demand among sophisticated collectors and aristocratic patrons. As a result, his atelier flourished in the early 1760s. Assisted by his nephew Jean-Bapiste Osmond, maître-fondeur in 1764, who succeeded him on his death in 1789, the Osmonds included most of the avant-garde elite of French society amongst their clients.

This model is based on no. 77 in Osmond's Livre de Desseins of 1775, 'Pièce à portail' (see H. Ottomeyer/P. Pröschel et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol.I, p.229). A related clock with the putti surmounting rather than flanking the dial, the case also signed by Osmond, was supplied by the marchand-mercier Simon-Philippe Poirier in 1777 to Louis XVI's younger brother, the comte d'Artois, for the salon des jeux in his apartments at the Palais du Temple, Paris (see La Folie d'Artois, Paris, 1988, p.108, fig.18).

Variations of the model were also used to adorn the tops of cartonniers and serre-papiers, an example of which is in the Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris (illustrated in P. Verlet, Les Bronzes Dorés du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1987, p.117, fig.148). Another version of the model by Osmond, with black marble plinth, was supplied to Louis XVI for the Cabinet de la Pendule in Versailles.

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