.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Jean-François Béeckaert (or Bekerr) is recorded as maître and presenting his masterpiece in 1746. He worked at rue du Petit Bourbon (1746), rue de Bussy (1748), quai des Orfèvres (1754) and rue de la Coutellerie (1772). Examples of his work are in Palazzo Pitti, Florence; musée du Petit Palais, Paris; Schloss Sanssouci, Potsdam.
A clock of closely related design to the present model, with its Chinaman holding an umbrella, is illustrated in P. Kjellberg, L'Encyclopédie de La Pendule Française, Paris, 1997, p. 125 and another in Tardy, French Clocks, Volume I, Paris, 1981, p. 284. The design of the pendule à l'éléphant is attributed to Jacques Caffieri.
A clock of closely related design to the present model, with its Chinaman holding an umbrella, is illustrated in P. Kjellberg, L'Encyclopédie de La Pendule Française, Paris, 1997, p. 125 and another in Tardy, French Clocks, Volume I, Paris, 1981, p. 284. The design of the pendule à l'éléphant is attributed to Jacques Caffieri.