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Lot Essay
This monumental and sculptural mantel clock appears to be unique - the chef modèle therefore presumably being a special commission. Although loosely described, an extremely closely related clock, conceivably the same, is reputedly recorded in an Inventory taken following the death of Madame de la Marck (née Noailles) in 1793.
The garland-making maid courted by a youthful gardener recalls the Chateau de Crécy's statue derived from the sculptor Falconet's model of a jeune fille tenant une guirlande de fleurs that was exhibited at the 1753 Salon. A related jardinière figure was engraved by Pierre-François Tardieu (d.1771) for his Premier Livre de Figures d'après les porcelaines de la Manufacture Royale de Frances, inventées en 1757, par Mr. Boucher (P. Jean-Richard, L'Oeuvre gravé de François Boucher, Paris, 1978, no. 1597). The seated rustic chinois with sun-shade corresponds to the finial figure of a cartel wall-clock pattern of the 1740s, such as that exhibited in the musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, and another surmounting the cartel clock in the famous interior of Countess Tessin's closet at Akero, Sweden, published by P. Thornton, Authentic Decor, The Domestic Interior 1720-1920, London, 1993, p.128.
In its overall characteristics, it clearly shares much in common with the oeuvre of Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain, elected maître fondeur in 1748. Certainly the concept of a central drum case supported by two kneeling Chinoiserie and surmounted by a figural finial, emblematic of Asia, directly recalls the clock model signed by Saint-Germain and discussed in P. Verlet, Les Bronzes Dorés Français du XVIIIème Siècle, Paris, 1987, p. 192 c. 218. A clock of this model was sold from the Alexander Collection, Christie's New York, 30 April 1999, lot 155. The boldness of the Champalimaud clock is, however, on an altogether grander and more ambitious scale.
The proportions of the present clock may perhaps suggest it was designed for service on a bureau plat and cartonnier, such as that illustrated on a 1740s bureau plat by Bernard II van Risenburgh (C. Gilbert, Furniture at Temple Newsam House and Lotherton Hall, Leeds, 1978 vol. II , no. 561).
The garland-making maid courted by a youthful gardener recalls the Chateau de Crécy's statue derived from the sculptor Falconet's model of a jeune fille tenant une guirlande de fleurs that was exhibited at the 1753 Salon. A related jardinière figure was engraved by Pierre-François Tardieu (d.1771) for his Premier Livre de Figures d'après les porcelaines de la Manufacture Royale de Frances, inventées en 1757, par Mr. Boucher (P. Jean-Richard, L'Oeuvre gravé de François Boucher, Paris, 1978, no. 1597). The seated rustic chinois with sun-shade corresponds to the finial figure of a cartel wall-clock pattern of the 1740s, such as that exhibited in the musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, and another surmounting the cartel clock in the famous interior of Countess Tessin's closet at Akero, Sweden, published by P. Thornton, Authentic Decor, The Domestic Interior 1720-1920, London, 1993, p.128.
In its overall characteristics, it clearly shares much in common with the oeuvre of Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain, elected maître fondeur in 1748. Certainly the concept of a central drum case supported by two kneeling Chinoiserie and surmounted by a figural finial, emblematic of Asia, directly recalls the clock model signed by Saint-Germain and discussed in P. Verlet, Les Bronzes Dorés Français du XVIIIème Siècle, Paris, 1987, p. 192 c. 218. A clock of this model was sold from the Alexander Collection, Christie's New York, 30 April 1999, lot 155. The boldness of the Champalimaud clock is, however, on an altogether grander and more ambitious scale.
The proportions of the present clock may perhaps suggest it was designed for service on a bureau plat and cartonnier, such as that illustrated on a 1740s bureau plat by Bernard II van Risenburgh (C. Gilbert, Furniture at Temple Newsam House and Lotherton Hall, Leeds, 1978 vol. II , no. 561).