.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The stamp 'I.Dubois' was employed by both Jacques Dubois (maître in 1742) and his son, René (maître in 1755). As the latter succeded to his father's atelier in 1763, furniture in the 'goût Grecque' style can confidently be given to René.
Antoine-Henri Voisin, elected maître in 1755, is recorded in the rue Dauphine in 1765.
Until Christian Baulez's article, the two clocks of this model supplied by the marchand-mercier Lazare Duvaux for the use of the duc de Bourgogne on 14 October 1758 - une pendule à sonnerie de J. Le Roy, composée d'une figure couchée représentant l'Etude en bronze doré d'or moulu - and to the comte du Luc on 9 November had always been considered to be the earliest examples recorded (C. Baulez, 'La Pendule à la Geoffrin Un Modèle a Succès', L'Objet d'Art L'Estampille, April 1989, pp. 34-41). However, in 1757 the marquis de Marigny had already acquired a clock of this model, with a movement by Musson, through Madame Geoffrin. The latter's reference in her notebooks to the model is very specific:
...Ma pendule de Guyard: elle m'est revenue à 3000 livres par ce que j'en ai fait faire le modèle; elle est l'original
Baulez suggests that Guyard was probably Laurent Guiard, the audacious pupil of Edmé Bouchardon, whom Mme. Geoffrin may have commissioned between January and September 1754, when he left for Rome. In 1768 Madame Geoffrin gave 'une pendule pareille à la mienne' to Denis Diderot, which survives in the Musée Du Breuil de Saint-Germain at Langres. Other members of Madame Geoffrin's circle who owned 'une pendule à L'Emploi du Temps' included the banker Jean-Joseph de Laborde, the duc de la Vrillière and Horace Walpole at Strawberry Hill. Walpole's clock, the base stamped by Joseph Baumhauer, dit Joseph which he bought for £50 before 1774, is now in a private collection, whilst a further example is now at Waddesdon.
The duc de Choiseul owned an example which can be seen placed on a cartonnier, probably by Simon Oeben, in a miniature by van Blarenberghe from the Choiseul Box, circa 1770-1 showing the cabinet octagone in the hôtel de Choiseul in Paris. Another was sold in the Blondel de Gagny sale (P. Rémy, Paris, 10-24 December 1776 and 8-22 January 1777). A number of examples bear the stamps of either Balthazar Lieutaud or Joseph Baumhauer, such as that in the Wallace Collection ( F267), whilst a further example was sold by the Marquess of Cholmondely in these Rooms, 8 December 1994, lot 73 (£43,300).
The pendule à la Geoffrin enjoyed great popularity for over thirty years, with the fondeur-doreur Franois Rémond recorded as selling an example in 1782. After Lazare Duvaux's death, Simon-Philippe Poirier probably became the main marchand-mercier.
Antoine-Henri Voisin, elected maître in 1755, is recorded in the rue Dauphine in 1765.
Until Christian Baulez's article, the two clocks of this model supplied by the marchand-mercier Lazare Duvaux for the use of the duc de Bourgogne on 14 October 1758 - une pendule à sonnerie de J. Le Roy, composée d'une figure couchée représentant l'Etude en bronze doré d'or moulu - and to the comte du Luc on 9 November had always been considered to be the earliest examples recorded (C. Baulez, 'La Pendule à la Geoffrin Un Modèle a Succès', L'Objet d'Art L'Estampille, April 1989, pp. 34-41). However, in 1757 the marquis de Marigny had already acquired a clock of this model, with a movement by Musson, through Madame Geoffrin. The latter's reference in her notebooks to the model is very specific:
...Ma pendule de Guyard: elle m'est revenue à 3000 livres par ce que j'en ai fait faire le modèle; elle est l'original
Baulez suggests that Guyard was probably Laurent Guiard, the audacious pupil of Edmé Bouchardon, whom Mme. Geoffrin may have commissioned between January and September 1754, when he left for Rome. In 1768 Madame Geoffrin gave 'une pendule pareille à la mienne' to Denis Diderot, which survives in the Musée Du Breuil de Saint-Germain at Langres. Other members of Madame Geoffrin's circle who owned 'une pendule à L'Emploi du Temps' included the banker Jean-Joseph de Laborde, the duc de la Vrillière and Horace Walpole at Strawberry Hill. Walpole's clock, the base stamped by Joseph Baumhauer, dit Joseph which he bought for £50 before 1774, is now in a private collection, whilst a further example is now at Waddesdon.
The duc de Choiseul owned an example which can be seen placed on a cartonnier, probably by Simon Oeben, in a miniature by van Blarenberghe from the Choiseul Box, circa 1770-1 showing the cabinet octagone in the hôtel de Choiseul in Paris. Another was sold in the Blondel de Gagny sale (P. Rémy, Paris, 10-24 December 1776 and 8-22 January 1777). A number of examples bear the stamps of either Balthazar Lieutaud or Joseph Baumhauer, such as that in the Wallace Collection ( F267), whilst a further example was sold by the Marquess of Cholmondely in these Rooms, 8 December 1994, lot 73 (£43,300).
The pendule à la Geoffrin enjoyed great popularity for over thirty years, with the fondeur-doreur Franois Rémond recorded as selling an example in 1782. After Lazare Duvaux's death, Simon-Philippe Poirier probably became the main marchand-mercier.