BY BAETENS, LONDON, CIRCA 1820

The two seated figures derive from the model of L'Etude, which together with La Philosophie, was created for the Sèvres factory by Louis-Simon Boizot in 1780. The marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre incorporated these figures into a clock design from which the present clock derives (H. Ottomeyer, P. Proschel et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. I, p. 295, fig. 4.17.5). In 1788 Daguerre delivered two clocks after his new design to Louis XVI for the Château de St. Cloud (P. Verlet, Les Bronzes Dorés Français du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1987, p. 322). The Prince of Wales, George IV, purchased two clocks of this model from Daguerre for both his bedroom and dressing-room (C. Jagger, Royal Clocks, London, 1983, p. 155, figs. 211-212).