Lot Essay
In mid-eighteenth century France, at a time when the elephant was both a prized diplomatic gift and a source of widespread fascination, Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain chose the animal as the protagonist of an innovative clock model, such as the present example, for which he conceived the majestic rocaille terrace.
image.png This musical mantel clock is an outstanding example of the French aristocracy's fascination with exotic animals and, more broadly, with the Orient. Following Albrecht Dürer's celebrated sixteenth-century woodcut of a rhinoceros and the arrival in Paris in 1749 of the famous live rhinoceros Clara, representations of such exotic creatures proliferated throughout the decorative arts. The remarkable naturalism of the elephant suggests that it was not derived solely from the often inaccurate contemporary engravings in circulation, but rather from direct observation of a living model. Having received extensive training in drawing, sculpture and the natural sciences, particularly botany and mineralogy, Saint-Germain also assembled an important library and cabinet of curiosities throughout his lifetime, which served as a constant source of inspiration.
Received as a maître fondeur on 15 July 1748, Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain (1719-1791) was among the first bronziers to conceive an entirely new type of mantel clock: an exotic animal standing upon a rocky rocaille base, supporting on its back the dial and movement housed within a drum-shaped case surmounted by a small figure. His status as an ouvrier libre exempted him from certain guild restrictions and allowed him to practise both as a cabinet-maker and as a bronzier. This exceptional privilege enabled him to produce every element of a clock himself while introducing important innovations, including the incorporation of musical movements and the sophisticated combination of patinated and gilt-bronze, still relatively uncommon at the time. As early as 1747, elephant and rhinoceros clocks are recorded in the inventory of his workshop, drawn up following the death of his wife, which lists: "deux pendules au rhinocéros l'une pour modèle et l'autre finie prisées ensembles la somme de 140 l." ("two rhinoceros clocks, one serving as a model and the other finished, valued together at 140 livres").
During the reign of Louis XV, the French Court commissioned Saint-Germain to produce several comparable clocks. Some can be securely identified through the inventories of the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne and the royal apartments. One rhinoceros clock, for example, belonged personally to Marie-Antoinette and is described as: "pendule portée par un rhinocéros posé sur terrasse doré en ormolu, l'animal noir de fumé portant sur son dos un tambour dans lequel est le mouvement à sonnerie du nom de J.B. Baillon" ("a clock supported by a rhinoceros standing upon a gilt ormolu terrace, the animal patinated black, bearing upon its back a drum containing a striking movement by J. B. Baillon").
Another, described as a "pendule à carillon représentant un rhinocéros portant la pendule et posé sur un coffre d'ébénisterie plaqué et garni de bronze doré d'or moulu", fitted with a movement by Jacques Gudin, was formerly at the Château de Saint-Cloud.
Saint-Germain supplied his bronze cases to the leading clockmakers of the reign of Louis XV, including Etienne Lenoir and Jean-Philippe Gosselin, who made and signed the present dial. Although the case enclosing the movement and the musical box are probably not by Saint-Germain himself, they correspond in every respect to his established models and display the same high standard of workmanship. An almost identical clock signed by Saint-Germain is preserved in the Residenzmuseum, Munich (illustrated in H. Ottomeyer and P. Pröschel et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, vol. II, Munich, 1986, p. 123, fig. 2.8.3), while another was sold at Christie's, New York, 1 January 1990, lot 64. Two further nearly identical clocks signed by the bronzier were sold at Christie's, London, 16 April 2014, lot 6, and Sotheby's, New York, 27 October 2001, lot 173. A closely related rhinoceros clock signed by Saint-Germain and incorporating a musical movement virtually identical to the present example was sold at Sotheby's, Paris, 16 June 2020, lot 10.
image.png This musical mantel clock is an outstanding example of the French aristocracy's fascination with exotic animals and, more broadly, with the Orient. Following Albrecht Dürer's celebrated sixteenth-century woodcut of a rhinoceros and the arrival in Paris in 1749 of the famous live rhinoceros Clara, representations of such exotic creatures proliferated throughout the decorative arts. The remarkable naturalism of the elephant suggests that it was not derived solely from the often inaccurate contemporary engravings in circulation, but rather from direct observation of a living model. Having received extensive training in drawing, sculpture and the natural sciences, particularly botany and mineralogy, Saint-Germain also assembled an important library and cabinet of curiosities throughout his lifetime, which served as a constant source of inspiration.
Received as a maître fondeur on 15 July 1748, Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain (1719-1791) was among the first bronziers to conceive an entirely new type of mantel clock: an exotic animal standing upon a rocky rocaille base, supporting on its back the dial and movement housed within a drum-shaped case surmounted by a small figure. His status as an ouvrier libre exempted him from certain guild restrictions and allowed him to practise both as a cabinet-maker and as a bronzier. This exceptional privilege enabled him to produce every element of a clock himself while introducing important innovations, including the incorporation of musical movements and the sophisticated combination of patinated and gilt-bronze, still relatively uncommon at the time. As early as 1747, elephant and rhinoceros clocks are recorded in the inventory of his workshop, drawn up following the death of his wife, which lists: "deux pendules au rhinocéros l'une pour modèle et l'autre finie prisées ensembles la somme de 140 l." ("two rhinoceros clocks, one serving as a model and the other finished, valued together at 140 livres").
During the reign of Louis XV, the French Court commissioned Saint-Germain to produce several comparable clocks. Some can be securely identified through the inventories of the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne and the royal apartments. One rhinoceros clock, for example, belonged personally to Marie-Antoinette and is described as: "pendule portée par un rhinocéros posé sur terrasse doré en ormolu, l'animal noir de fumé portant sur son dos un tambour dans lequel est le mouvement à sonnerie du nom de J.B. Baillon" ("a clock supported by a rhinoceros standing upon a gilt ormolu terrace, the animal patinated black, bearing upon its back a drum containing a striking movement by J. B. Baillon").
Another, described as a "pendule à carillon représentant un rhinocéros portant la pendule et posé sur un coffre d'ébénisterie plaqué et garni de bronze doré d'or moulu", fitted with a movement by Jacques Gudin, was formerly at the Château de Saint-Cloud.
Saint-Germain supplied his bronze cases to the leading clockmakers of the reign of Louis XV, including Etienne Lenoir and Jean-Philippe Gosselin, who made and signed the present dial. Although the case enclosing the movement and the musical box are probably not by Saint-Germain himself, they correspond in every respect to his established models and display the same high standard of workmanship. An almost identical clock signed by Saint-Germain is preserved in the Residenzmuseum, Munich (illustrated in H. Ottomeyer and P. Pröschel et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, vol. II, Munich, 1986, p. 123, fig. 2.8.3), while another was sold at Christie's, New York, 1 January 1990, lot 64. Two further nearly identical clocks signed by the bronzier were sold at Christie's, London, 16 April 2014, lot 6, and Sotheby's, New York, 27 October 2001, lot 173. A closely related rhinoceros clock signed by Saint-Germain and incorporating a musical movement virtually identical to the present example was sold at Sotheby's, Paris, 16 June 2020, lot 10.