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Lot Essay
This vernis Martin clock perfectly embodies the eighteenth-century fascination with the idealised Far East. The design of these figures was inspired by travellers' accounts and fanciful illustrations of the Far East, a region that remained largely mysterious, yet immensely alluring to Europeans.. A notable example is the pot-pourri formerly in the collection of the Duc de Tallard (Christie's London, The Djahanguir Riahi Collection, 6 December 2012, lot 3), surmounted by a Chinese porcelain figure that itself provided one of the principal models for Western magots.
Faced with the scarcity and prohibitive cost of imported Asian lacquer, and determined to rival these coveted works, several Parisian workshops developed techniques capable of imitating lacquer. The workshop established by the Frères Martin rapidly distinguished itself during the opening decades of the eighteenth century. Their achievement lay in their extraordinary ability to reproduce the visual richness of Asian lacquer. This evident in the finely detailed costumes of this clock's figures on this notably the gold-highlighted tied-gourd motif reserved against a black ground, recalling Japanese maki-e, the technique of decorating lacquer with sprinkled gold. Through works such as these, the frères Martin responded perfectly to the Parisian taste for colour, novelty and exoticism. A comparable example was offered in The Graziella Patiño de Ortiz Linares Collection, Christie's, Paris, 23 September 2026, lot 43, alongside a pair of candelabra en suite, lot 44.
Faced with the scarcity and prohibitive cost of imported Asian lacquer, and determined to rival these coveted works, several Parisian workshops developed techniques capable of imitating lacquer. The workshop established by the Frères Martin rapidly distinguished itself during the opening decades of the eighteenth century. Their achievement lay in their extraordinary ability to reproduce the visual richness of Asian lacquer. This evident in the finely detailed costumes of this clock's figures on this notably the gold-highlighted tied-gourd motif reserved against a black ground, recalling Japanese maki-e, the technique of decorating lacquer with sprinkled gold. Through works such as these, the frères Martin responded perfectly to the Parisian taste for colour, novelty and exoticism. A comparable example was offered in The Graziella Patiño de Ortiz Linares Collection, Christie's, Paris, 23 September 2026, lot 43, alongside a pair of candelabra en suite, lot 44.