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Lot Essay
Mantel clocks incorporating figures of rhinoceri, elephants, bulls and lions were highly fashionable in mid-18th century Paris, reflecting the taste for the exotic and novel. An Indian rhinoceros named Clara travelled throughout Europe for seventeen years. She was the tame adopted animal of the director of the Dutch East India Company Jan Albert Sichterman in Bengal. Clara was then owned by Douwe Mout van der Meer when she disembarked at Rotterdam on 22 July 1741. The highlights of her European tour included posing for Johann Joachim Kändler from the Meissen porcelain factory in 1747 and being received by Louis XV at the Royal Menagerie at Versailles in 1749. During her five months in Paris she was seen by the naturalist Buffon, and Jean-Baptiste Oudry painted a life-size portrait of her. In 1750 she travelled to Italy, where she visited the Baths of Diocletian; she arrived in Venice in 1751 where she was painted by Pietro Longhi (reproduced here) and starred in the carnival (G. Ridley, Clara's Grand Tour: Travels with a Rhinoceros in Eighteenth-Century Europe, London, 2004).
The marchands-mercier seized this opportunity to produce and market three types of clock incorporating rhinoceri, as studied by T.H. Clarke in The Rhinoceros from Dürer to Stubbs 1515-1799 (London, 1986). The first and earliest group, based on Albrecht Dürer's celebrated engraving of 1515 (reproduced here) with the large scales of the rhinoceros' legs, is represented by a clock formerly in the Alexander Collection, sold Christie's, New York, 30 April 1999, lot 115; one illustrated in E. Niehüser, French Bronze Clocks, 1700 - 1830: A Study of the Figural Images, Atglen, 1999, p. 111, fig. 176; another sold anonymously at Christie's London, 6 July 1978, lot 37; and a fourth sold from the Collection Viel, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 24 May 1932, lot 51.
A second model, probably based on Johann Joachim Kändler's model of the rhinoceros, is slightly less stylized with the beast's head rearing. An example of this model in bronze is illustrated in J.-D. Augarde, 'Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain (1719 - 1791): Bronzearbeiten zwischen Rocaille und Klassizismus', H. Ottomeyer, P. Pröschel, et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. II, p. 525, fig. 2, and another was sold anonymously, Christie's, New York, 2 November 2000, lot 181.
The third model - of which the Riahi clock is an example - was almost certainly executed in 1749 by Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain when the rhinoceros was in Paris. Other examples of this type include one in the Grog-Carven collection at the Musée du Louvre, also with movement by Viger (P. Kjellberg, L'Encyclopédie de La Pendule Française, Paris, 1997, p. 129, fig. D); and another formerly in the Roberto Polo collection, sold Sotheby's New York, 3 November 1989, lot 44. A clock of this model is depicted on the mantelpiece in the painting of Princess Marie-Elisabeth de Bourbon-Parma by Laurent Pecheux (reproduced here); the clock was almost certainly either part of her purchases or gifts received from her father Louis XV, circa 1753.
JEAN-JOSEPH DE SAINT-GERMAIN
Elected as a maître fondeur en terre et en sable on 15 July 1748, Saint-Germain (1719 - 1791) enjoyed the privilege of an ouvrier libre - enabling him to act both as an ébénistes and bronzier. He frequently supplied cases cast with animal forms and allegorical figures to the leading clockmakers of Paris, including the le Roy workshops, Etienne Lenoir and Jean-Philippe Gosselin.
FRANCOIS VIGER
François Viger (c. 1708-1784) trained partly under Louis Jouard and was maître in 1744. Saint-Germain is thought to have been his main supplier of clock cases, though he is also known to have used cases by other bronziers such as the Osmonds, the Caffièris, Bonnet and Morlay.
The marchands-mercier seized this opportunity to produce and market three types of clock incorporating rhinoceri, as studied by T.H. Clarke in The Rhinoceros from Dürer to Stubbs 1515-1799 (London, 1986). The first and earliest group, based on Albrecht Dürer's celebrated engraving of 1515 (reproduced here) with the large scales of the rhinoceros' legs, is represented by a clock formerly in the Alexander Collection, sold Christie's, New York, 30 April 1999, lot 115; one illustrated in E. Niehüser, French Bronze Clocks, 1700 - 1830: A Study of the Figural Images, Atglen, 1999, p. 111, fig. 176; another sold anonymously at Christie's London, 6 July 1978, lot 37; and a fourth sold from the Collection Viel, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 24 May 1932, lot 51.
A second model, probably based on Johann Joachim Kändler's model of the rhinoceros, is slightly less stylized with the beast's head rearing. An example of this model in bronze is illustrated in J.-D. Augarde, 'Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain (1719 - 1791): Bronzearbeiten zwischen Rocaille und Klassizismus', H. Ottomeyer, P. Pröschel, et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. II, p. 525, fig. 2, and another was sold anonymously, Christie's, New York, 2 November 2000, lot 181.
The third model - of which the Riahi clock is an example - was almost certainly executed in 1749 by Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain when the rhinoceros was in Paris. Other examples of this type include one in the Grog-Carven collection at the Musée du Louvre, also with movement by Viger (P. Kjellberg, L'Encyclopédie de La Pendule Française, Paris, 1997, p. 129, fig. D); and another formerly in the Roberto Polo collection, sold Sotheby's New York, 3 November 1989, lot 44. A clock of this model is depicted on the mantelpiece in the painting of Princess Marie-Elisabeth de Bourbon-Parma by Laurent Pecheux (reproduced here); the clock was almost certainly either part of her purchases or gifts received from her father Louis XV, circa 1753.
JEAN-JOSEPH DE SAINT-GERMAIN
Elected as a maître fondeur en terre et en sable on 15 July 1748, Saint-Germain (1719 - 1791) enjoyed the privilege of an ouvrier libre - enabling him to act both as an ébénistes and bronzier. He frequently supplied cases cast with animal forms and allegorical figures to the leading clockmakers of Paris, including the le Roy workshops, Etienne Lenoir and Jean-Philippe Gosselin.
FRANCOIS VIGER
François Viger (c. 1708-1784) trained partly under Louis Jouard and was maître in 1744. Saint-Germain is thought to have been his main supplier of clock cases, though he is also known to have used cases by other bronziers such as the Osmonds, the Caffièris, Bonnet and Morlay.