ATTRIBUTED TO ROBERT OSMOND, CIRCA 1775

This clock can be confidently attributed to Robert Osmond, maître-fondeur en terre et sable in 1746 and appointed juré des fondeurs in 1756. It follows a design in Osmond's Livre de Desseins of 1775, no. 58, which is now housed in the Bibliothèque Doucet, Paris. Influenced by the bronzier Caffiéri, Osmond was one of the first to interpret the new neo-classical style. His work was much in demand among sophisticated collectors and aristocratic patrons. As a result, his atelier flourished, assisted by his nephew Jean-Baptiste Osmond, maître-fondeur in 1764, who succeeded him on his death in 1789.

A clock of this model with a patinated-bronze lion with movement by Jean-Baptiste Baillon is illustrated in H. Ottomeyer & P. Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. I, p. 192, fig. 3.11.3, whilst a further clock of this model, incorporating a martial trophy in the medallion, with movement signed 'Meunier Le Jne A Paris, No 4' and dated 1775, was sold anonymously at Christie's, Monaco, 5 December 1993, lot 170 (illustrated in J.-D. Augarde, Les Ouvriers du Temps, Paris, 1996, p. 373, fig. 273); a further example was sold anonymously Christie's, London, 2 December 1997, lot 81 and subsequently from an anonymous private collection 'A Gothick Pavilion: Byron to Beaton', Christie's, London, 9 December 2010, lot 6 (£10,000 inc.).

Similar 'Pendules à Lion' were also designed and executed by the bronzier François Vion (H. Ottomeyer & P. Pröschel, op. cit., p. 193, fig. 3.11.6).