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Lot Essay
Two other 'au tablier' (apron) clocks attributed to André-Charles Boulle (1642-1732) may be seen in the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris and in the Getty Museum, Malibu. See respectively J-D. Augarde, Les Ouvriers du Temps, Geneva, 1996, p. 248, fig. 195 and Masterpieces of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Decorative Arts, California, 1997, p. 57; also R. Plomp, Early French Pendulum Clocks, known as Pendules Religeuses, Schiedam, 2009, p. 76 and p.107, fig. 201. The first of these clocks, with a movement by Pierre Duchesne, is mentioned in a posthumous (1718) inventory of the possessions of Louis XIV (see Plomp, p. 76). Interestingly, the marquetry of those examples and the present clock includes a flying bird to the centre of the trunk. This feature is repeated on another clock with a tablier to the plinth, also attributed to Boulle, at Boughton House in Northamptonshire (see T. Murdoch, ed. Boughton House, the English Versailles, London, 1992, plate 71). The Boughton clock, moreover, has mounts to the trunk of the pedestal almost identical to those on the present clock.
The designs for these 'pedestals with aprons' invented by Boulle appear in Nouveaux Desseins de meubles et ouvrages de bronze et marqueterie inventés et gravés par André-Charles Boulle, published by Mariette in 1707.
Plomp further argues that the arched 'front window' and large ornament below the chapter ring, features of the above clocks, were in fact innovations introduced by Boulle in the 1680s (p. 76). Indeed, he makes a convincing case for Boulle having been the most prominent supplier of clock cases during the period 1680-90, supporting a similar assertion by Winthrop Edey before him (see W. Edey, French Clocks in North American Collections, New York, 1982, p. 35). Among his reasons for doing so is the fact that already in the 18th Century early pendulum clocks with marquetry were 'almost automatically attributed to Boulle'; and that the term 'boulle marquetry' (in spite of the fact that Boulle was neither the inventor nor exclusive supplier of this form of decoration) itself suggests that he was considered to be its most prominent supplier. Moreover, the archives give the names of many clockmakers as clients of Boulle, including Balthazar (II), Gilles (II) and Henry Martinot, Pierre Du Chesne, Antoine and Pierre Gaudron, Isaac and Jacques Thuret and Nicolas Gribelin. All of these horlogers were major Paris makers of pendules religeuses (Plomp, p. 77).
The designs for these 'pedestals with aprons' invented by Boulle appear in Nouveaux Desseins de meubles et ouvrages de bronze et marqueterie inventés et gravés par André-Charles Boulle, published by Mariette in 1707.
Plomp further argues that the arched 'front window' and large ornament below the chapter ring, features of the above clocks, were in fact innovations introduced by Boulle in the 1680s (p. 76). Indeed, he makes a convincing case for Boulle having been the most prominent supplier of clock cases during the period 1680-90, supporting a similar assertion by Winthrop Edey before him (see W. Edey, French Clocks in North American Collections, New York, 1982, p. 35). Among his reasons for doing so is the fact that already in the 18th Century early pendulum clocks with marquetry were 'almost automatically attributed to Boulle'; and that the term 'boulle marquetry' (in spite of the fact that Boulle was neither the inventor nor exclusive supplier of this form of decoration) itself suggests that he was considered to be its most prominent supplier. Moreover, the archives give the names of many clockmakers as clients of Boulle, including Balthazar (II), Gilles (II) and Henry Martinot, Pierre Du Chesne, Antoine and Pierre Gaudron, Isaac and Jacques Thuret and Nicolas Gribelin. All of these horlogers were major Paris makers of pendules religeuses (Plomp, p. 77).