A LOUIS XVI ORMOLU, WHITE AND ROUGE GRIOTTE MARBLE CLOCK ON MUSICAL BASE

THE DIAL SIGNED 'AUBERT L'NE. PARIS', CIRCA 1770

Details

A LOUIS XVI ORMOLU, WHITE AND ROUGE GRIOTTE MARBLE CLOCK ON MUSICAL BASE
THE DIAL SIGNED 'AUBERT L'NE. PARIS', CIRCA 1770
The white enamel dial with vertical Roman chapters and outer concentric date ring, pierced and chased ormolu hands and blued steel arrow date hands, the movement with twin going barrels with silk suspension and countwheel strike on a bell, with trip linkage to the plinth set with a musical movement with pinned wood barrel playing via a bellows on a series of pipes and with manual trip lever to the side of the case, the figure of Venus standing on a cloud and Adonis on a naturalistic base with his hunting dog, on a shaped base with two side and a central relief plaque of putti bacchanalia, on toupie feet, on a base with a balustrade and silk-lined pierced trellis alternating with fluted columnar supports and a central Wedgwood plaque, on a base with a similar central relief plaque and flattened bun feet
29 in. (74 cm.) high, 21½ in. (54.5 cm.) wide, 10 in. (24.5 cm.) deep

Lot Essay

Jean-Jacques Aubert, Paris, horloger du Roi in 1737.

This musical clock is closely related to one illustrated in P. Kjellberg, Encyclopédie de la Pendule Française, Paris, 1997, p. 251, fig. E. The clock itself is different, but the musical base is essentially identical and incorporates a porcelain plaque and putti frieze of differing design. A further musical base of very closely related design from the collection of the 6th Earl of Rosebery, Mentmore Towers, Buckinghamshire, was sold Sotheby's, house sale, 18 - 20 May 1977, lot 448.

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