Lot 33
33
Georges-Adrien Merlet, Paris A Louis XVI ormolu, enamel and white marble striking skeleton clock with full calendar and phases of the moon. Circa 1780
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VA… Read more
Georges-Adrien Merlet, Paris A Louis XVI ormolu, enamel and white marble striking skeleton clock with full calendar and phases of the moon. Circa 1780

Details
Georges-Adrien Merlet, Paris

A Louis XVI ormolu, enamel and white marble striking skeleton clock with full calendar and phases of the moon. Circa 1780
The white enamel chapter ring with Roman hour numerals with delicately pierced ormolu entrelac and fleur-de-lys hands, the outer concentric minute track with Arabic quarter numerals and gold dot minute markers, inner concentric ring for days of week and their corresponding deity with double-ended blued steel hand, outer concentric date ring with blued steel arrowhead hand, the chapter ring signed by the enameller G Merlet, the centre of the dial revealing the brass cadrature, the gold stellar and blue enamel rolling moonphase above within a white enamel ring calibrated 1 to 29½, the subsidiary white enamel ring below indicating the months with their corresponding signs of the Zodiac with delicate blued steel hand and flanked by blue enamel feet decorated with polychrome enamel delicate flowers within a gold foliate and white enamel border and terminating with two lozenge shaped vignettes painted en grisaille, one with a boy reclining against a tree with a dog in his lap, the other of a boy seated against a tree holding some scales, the movement with circular brass plates with four back-pinned pillars, the going train with going barrel and pin-wheel escapement with high quality blued steel-rod pendulum with ormolu Apollo sunburst bob and knife-edge suspension, the strike train with going barrel and countwheel positioned on the skeletonised backplate with strike on a bell, the clock frame surmounted by a resplendent ormolu eagle and with gadrooned urns flanking the rectangular white marble plinth raised on ormolu toupie feet and inset with an ormolu panel cast with frolicking putti
19 in. (48 cm.) high
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

Georges-Adrien Merlet, 1754-c.1802. The son of a grocer, Merlet was one of the three best known enamelers in Paris duing the latter half of the 18th century. The other two better known enamelers were Jean Coteau (1739-1812) and Gobin Etienne, known as Dubuisson. The latter is listed as working in Sèvres in about 1756, painting flowers, watch cases and dials.
Merlet's name appears on relatively few clocks but judging by the high quality enameling on the present clock he is certainly deserving of more research.

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