THE CASE BY FRANÇOIS VION, THE MOVEMENT BY LOUIS MONTJOYE, PARIS, CIRCA 1770

Details

A LATE LOUIS XV ORMOLU 'PENDULE A CERCLES TOURNANTS' - THE THREE GRACES
THE CASE BY FRANÇOIS VION, THE MOVEMENT BY LOUIS MONTJOYE, PARIS, CIRCA 1770
The Three Graces garlanded with roses and supporting a globe with twin cercles tournant dials with enamelled cabochons of both Roman and Arabic numerals, swagged with laurel and with fleur-de-lys pointer flanked by mille-raies scrolled handles, surmounted by Cupid holding an arrow, the eared stepped circular plinth with four scrolled, channelled foliate volutes flanking panels with acanthus-cast medallions, two hinged and opening to reveal a winding-hole and speed regulator, on a canted, concave-sided base with laurel-trail border, the twin barrel movement with silk suspension and countwheel strike to bell, the underside of one of the scrolled supports of pedestal incised 'VION', the backplate signed 'Louis Montjoye fecit', with fine adjustment indication to rear further signed 'AoR/MONTJOYE', the inside of plinth door with incised 'haust', the plaque to base inscribed with dots 'face de devant'
20 ¼ in. (51.4 cm.) high; the base 6 7/8 in. (17.5 cm.) square

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Lot Essay

THE HISTORY OF THIS MODEL

The design for this clock, signed by the fondeur François Vion, is reproduced in an album of designs now conserved in the Bibliothèque Doucet, Paris (VI E 15, Rés.fol.20/1). Called a 'Pièce de bureau', its subject described as 'Le temps qui passe entre l'amour et les Grâces', the clock cost 902 livres, of which the chasing cost 660 livres and the gilding between 200 and 222 livres.

An identical clock at the château de Fontainebleau (Inv.F918 C) was purchased by General Moreau; subsequently acquired by the garde-meuble following its arrival at Fontainebleau, it was recorded in the appartements of Général Moreau in 1804 (J.-P. Samoyault, Le Mobilier du Général Moreau, Paris, 1992, p.42, fig.33). In the 19th Century, Molinier had identified the Fontainebleau clock with that delivered by the marchand-mercier Simon-Philippe Poirier to Madame du Barry on 4 October 1769 at a cost of 2400 livres, when it was described as une pendule représentant les grâces dorée d'or de Germain. M. Samoyault's research has put this traditional attribution in question - and it seems rather more likely that the clock delivered to Madame du Barry would have been closer to models signed by the horlogers Brille or Dutertre, both of whom are known to have worked for Poirier.

Related clocks are conserved in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (illustrated in S. Eriksen, Early Neoclassicism in France, London, 1974, pl. 198, p. 348); the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto (illustrated in 'French Clocks in North American Collections', Exhibition Catalogue, 1982-83, pp. 80-81) ; the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris; the château de Fontainebleau; and the Huntington Gallery, San Marino (illustrated in R. Wark, French Decorative Art in the Huntington Collection, San Marino, 1979, p.70, fig.91). A further example with a movement by Lepaute was sold from a Distinguished Private Collection, Chirstie's New York, 2 November 2000, lot 2 ($94,000).

Jean-Louis Montjoye, eldest son of Paris clockmaker Louis Montjoye, is recorded with his father in 1772; and as pendulier in Rue St-Julien-le-Pauvre in 1781.

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