Lot Essay
This superb clock, combining a beautifully chased gilt-bronze case and richly decorated Sèvres porcelain plaques painted by Charles-Nicolas Dodin and Antoine-Joseph Chappuis, is an exquisite example of the luxury goods produced for the fashionable marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre. Daguerre took over the business of Simon-Philippe Poirier and had a monopoly on the plaques produced at Sèvres for use on furniture and bronzes d’ameublement.
The design for this model of clock, one of a select group of clocks to incorporate Sèvres porcelain plaques, is part of the celebrated album of drawings of furniture and objets d’art (now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Esmerian bequest), which is thought to be a form of sale catalogue of furniture and objets d’art produced by Daguerre for one of his most important foreign clients Albert, Duke of Saxe-Teschen (see R. Baarsen, Paris 1650-1900 Decorative Arts in the Rijksmuseum, New Haven, 2013, p. 428, fig. 103.2, illustrated here).
RECORDED EXAMPLES OF THE MODEL
Only two other clocks of this model are recorded, both supplied by Daguerre to foreign clients:
-The prototype for the model was acquired in 1782 by the future Paul I of Russia and his wife Maria Feodorovna, when they traveled to Paris incognito as the Comte and Comtesse du Nord and acquired a spectacular group of furniture, porcelain and works of art, principally from Daguerre. The clock, with movement by Montjoye, was supplied for Maria Feodorovna’s bedroom at Pavlovsk and was subsequently sold in 1932 in the series of sales held by the Soviet government, and is now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. As Reinier Baarsen has convincingly argued, this version incorporates certain plaques, notably the oval plaque of the cresting and the plaque below the dial, which were originally conceived for use in a model of barometer from the 1770s, a form that perhaps by that time was deemed unfashionable, and so Daguerre found a way to reuse the plaques in this new model of clock (see Baarsen, op.cit., pp. 424-431).
-A second example, even closer in design to the clock offered here and less obviously reusing plaques, notably the oval plaque of the cresting and the plaque below the dial, conceived for a barometer, has recently been identified as having been supplied to Prince Maximilian of Habsburg (1756-1801), younger brother of Marie-Antoinette and Bishop and Elector of Cologne. It is now in the collection of the Huntington Library, Pasadena (see S. Bennett, C. Sargentson et al.,French Art of the Eighteenth Century at the Huntington, New Haven, 2008, cat. 48, pp. 149-151). Similarities include that the movement is also by Sotiau, who worked extensively for Daguerre, the plaques are dated 1782 and the central plaque is painted by Dodin and the central plaque to the base is painted by Chappuis. This clock was given by Maximilian to Prince Wenceslaus of Saxony (1739-1812) around 1785.
POSSIBLE PROVENANCE
The ties among European royalty were extremely close; Albert Saxe-Teschen was brother of Wenceslaus of Saxony, while his wife Marie-Christine was sister of Maximilian and Marie-Antoinette (who herself patronized Daguerre extensively). It is therefore not fanciful to conclude that the clock offered here, made in the same year as the example supplied to his brother-in-law Maximilian, could actually be the one intended for Saxe-Teschen pictured in the album mentioned above, but with some variations in the Sèvres plaques.
The Saxe-Teschens were joint Governors of the Habsburg Netherlands from 1780-1792, and built a lavish palace as their summer residence at Laeken near Brussels between 1782-1784, designed by the French architect Charles de Wailly, which they furnished in the latest fashion. It is known that the Saxe-Teschens visited Paris in August 1786 to visit Marie-Antoinette, who organized a party for them at the Trianon. It seems likely therefore that they would have visited Daguerre on this trip, who was of course the Queen’s favorite dealer, and it could well be that Daguerre’s album of designs, including the clock, could have resulted from this visit, emulating his brother-in-law Maximilian’s purchase of 1782 (see A. Gruber, Les Grandes Fêtes et leurs Décors à l'Epoque de Louis XVI, Geneva, 1972, p.180). Sadly many of the furnishings of Laeken were sunk at sea when the Saxe-Teschens were forced to leave after the Habsburg defeat by France at the battle of Jemappes in 1792, and there is little in the way of a detailed inventory to identify specific pieces in their collection.
The design for this model of clock, one of a select group of clocks to incorporate Sèvres porcelain plaques, is part of the celebrated album of drawings of furniture and objets d’art (now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Esmerian bequest), which is thought to be a form of sale catalogue of furniture and objets d’art produced by Daguerre for one of his most important foreign clients Albert, Duke of Saxe-Teschen (see R. Baarsen, Paris 1650-1900 Decorative Arts in the Rijksmuseum, New Haven, 2013, p. 428, fig. 103.2, illustrated here).
RECORDED EXAMPLES OF THE MODEL
Only two other clocks of this model are recorded, both supplied by Daguerre to foreign clients:
-The prototype for the model was acquired in 1782 by the future Paul I of Russia and his wife Maria Feodorovna, when they traveled to Paris incognito as the Comte and Comtesse du Nord and acquired a spectacular group of furniture, porcelain and works of art, principally from Daguerre. The clock, with movement by Montjoye, was supplied for Maria Feodorovna’s bedroom at Pavlovsk and was subsequently sold in 1932 in the series of sales held by the Soviet government, and is now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. As Reinier Baarsen has convincingly argued, this version incorporates certain plaques, notably the oval plaque of the cresting and the plaque below the dial, which were originally conceived for use in a model of barometer from the 1770s, a form that perhaps by that time was deemed unfashionable, and so Daguerre found a way to reuse the plaques in this new model of clock (see Baarsen, op.cit., pp. 424-431).
-A second example, even closer in design to the clock offered here and less obviously reusing plaques, notably the oval plaque of the cresting and the plaque below the dial, conceived for a barometer, has recently been identified as having been supplied to Prince Maximilian of Habsburg (1756-1801), younger brother of Marie-Antoinette and Bishop and Elector of Cologne. It is now in the collection of the Huntington Library, Pasadena (see S. Bennett, C. Sargentson et al.,French Art of the Eighteenth Century at the Huntington, New Haven, 2008, cat. 48, pp. 149-151). Similarities include that the movement is also by Sotiau, who worked extensively for Daguerre, the plaques are dated 1782 and the central plaque is painted by Dodin and the central plaque to the base is painted by Chappuis. This clock was given by Maximilian to Prince Wenceslaus of Saxony (1739-1812) around 1785.
POSSIBLE PROVENANCE
The ties among European royalty were extremely close; Albert Saxe-Teschen was brother of Wenceslaus of Saxony, while his wife Marie-Christine was sister of Maximilian and Marie-Antoinette (who herself patronized Daguerre extensively). It is therefore not fanciful to conclude that the clock offered here, made in the same year as the example supplied to his brother-in-law Maximilian, could actually be the one intended for Saxe-Teschen pictured in the album mentioned above, but with some variations in the Sèvres plaques.
The Saxe-Teschens were joint Governors of the Habsburg Netherlands from 1780-1792, and built a lavish palace as their summer residence at Laeken near Brussels between 1782-1784, designed by the French architect Charles de Wailly, which they furnished in the latest fashion. It is known that the Saxe-Teschens visited Paris in August 1786 to visit Marie-Antoinette, who organized a party for them at the Trianon. It seems likely therefore that they would have visited Daguerre on this trip, who was of course the Queen’s favorite dealer, and it could well be that Daguerre’s album of designs, including the clock, could have resulted from this visit, emulating his brother-in-law Maximilian’s purchase of 1782 (see A. Gruber, Les Grandes Fêtes et leurs Décors à l'Epoque de Louis XVI, Geneva, 1972, p.180). Sadly many of the furnishings of Laeken were sunk at sea when the Saxe-Teschens were forced to leave after the Habsburg defeat by France at the battle of Jemappes in 1792, and there is little in the way of a detailed inventory to identify specific pieces in their collection.