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拍品專文
Jean-Baptiste III Albert Baillon (d. 1772), maître in 1727, worked from the place Dauphine and was named valet de chambre-horloger de la Reine Marie Leczinska in 1744 after the death of Claude Martinot, premier valet de chambre de la Reine before 1748, and finally premier valet de chambre and valet de chambre-horloger ordinaire de la Dauphine Marie-Antoinette.
Clocks incorporating figures of rhinoceros, elephants, bulls and lions were highly fashionable in mid-18th century Paris. Draughtsmen and ornamenistes routinely produced, copied and plagiarized popular subjects in response to changing tastes and current events. In this way, models were disseminated to a number of workshops.
The arrival of a live rhinoceros in Rotterdam in 1741, and its subsequent travel to Versailles in early January 1749 and then to Paris where it remained from February to April 1749, exemplifies how current events and fashion were so closely intertwined. Inevitably, the marchands-merciers were quick to sieze upon the mania created by the exotic animal's presence, and proceeded to supply objects au rhinoceros.
SAINT-GERMAIN AND THE RHINOCEROS CLOCK
The earliest version of a mantel clock with a rhinoceros base dates to before 1747, when the inventory drawn up upon the death of the maître-fondeur Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain's wife mentions,
deux pendules au rhinoceros l'une pour modèle et l'autre finie prisées ensembles la somme de 140 l.
As this predates the 1749 pilgrimage of the Rotterdam rhinoceros to Paris, it is likely that Saint-Germain had looked to popular graphic sources such as Albrecht Dürer's celebrated engraving of 1515, reproduced here.
Three distinct models of this mantel clock by Saint-Germain are recognized. The first and earliest group, clearly based on the Dürer engraving due to the large scales of the rhinoceros' legs, is represented by a clock formerly in the Alexander collection, sold Christie's New York, 30 April 1999, lot 115 ($150,000), one ilustrated in E. Niehüser, French Bronze Clocks, 1700-1830: A Study of the Figural Images, Atglen, 1999, p. 111, fig. 176, another sold anonymously at Christie's London, 6 July 1978, lot 37, and a fourth sold from the Collection Viel, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 24 May 1932, lot 51. Interestingly, all of the examples from this earliest group were clearly modelled separately from the ormolu base, as it is naturalistically modelled without incorporating plain recesses to take the feet.
A second model, represented by the clock on offer, probably based on Johann Joachim Kändler's figure of a rhinoceros, modelled for Meissen in 1747 upon the animal's visit to Dresden, is slightly less stylized with the beast's head rearing. Another in bronze is illustrated in J.-D. Augarde, 'Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain (1719-91): Bronzearbeiten zwischen Rocaille und Klassizismus' in H. Ottomeyer & P Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. II, p. 525, fig. 2, and a third was sold anonymously, Christies New York, 30 October 1996, lot 417 ($332,500), the latter being the only rhinoceros clock mentioned that is virtually identical to the present lot. A further example in porcelain, dating from 1752, formerly in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Franklin N. Groves, was sold in these Rooms, 15 October 1988, lot 37.
The final model was almost certainly executed during 1749 when the rhinoceros was in Paris, where it was available for first hand study. Examples of this type include one in the Grog-Carven collection at the Musée du Louvre (illustrated in P. Kjellberg, Encyclopédie de la Pendule française du Moyen Age au XXe Siècle, Paris, 1997, p. 129, fig. D), another formerly in the Roberto Polo collection, sold Sotheby's New York, 3 November 1989, lot 44, and a third formerly with Alexander & Berendt, London, sold anonymously Christie's Monaco, 5 December 1992, lot 73.
No two of the pendules au rhinoceros discussed above have movements signed by the same horloger, further emphasizing how widespread the production of this model was.
MADAME INFANTE AND THE RHINOCEROS CLOCK
The marriage of the eldest daughter of Louis XV, Louise-Elisabeth, Princess of Parma (1727-1759), to the Infante Philippe of Spain, Duke of Parma, in 1739 and the establishment of their court in Parma necessitated the refurbishment of the palace at Colorno in the most à la mode Parisian taste. Indeed, the Princess of Parma mentioned this exciting possibility in a letter to the duchesse de Luynes:
Colorno pourrait devenir très joli avec une personne de votre goüt. Il ya a peu de réparations à y faire pour y habiter mais beaucoup pour le rendre comme il pourrait être.
Madame Infante made several trips to Paris - one in 1749, another from September 1752 to September 1753, and a third from September 1757 until her death there in December 1759. Returning from her first trip, she was accompanied by thirty-four wagons of furniture and clothes purchased from the city's leading marchand-merciers, while the cost of the purchases from her 1752 trip alone totalled 200,000 livres (C. Briganti, Curioso Itinerario delle Collezioni Ducali Parmesi, Milan, 1969).
It is interesting to note that a Saint-Germain mantel clock with a modelled bronze rhinoceros base identical to the clock on offer is depicted in the 1765 portrait of Princess Luisa of Parma by Laurent Pécheux (Palazzo Pitti, Florence), reproduced here. The Infanta's clock was most likely purchased during her 1749 trip, as this coincided directly with the presence of the Rotterdam rhinoceros in Versailles and Paris.
Clocks incorporating figures of rhinoceros, elephants, bulls and lions were highly fashionable in mid-18th century Paris. Draughtsmen and ornamenistes routinely produced, copied and plagiarized popular subjects in response to changing tastes and current events. In this way, models were disseminated to a number of workshops.
The arrival of a live rhinoceros in Rotterdam in 1741, and its subsequent travel to Versailles in early January 1749 and then to Paris where it remained from February to April 1749, exemplifies how current events and fashion were so closely intertwined. Inevitably, the marchands-merciers were quick to sieze upon the mania created by the exotic animal's presence, and proceeded to supply objects au rhinoceros.
SAINT-GERMAIN AND THE RHINOCEROS CLOCK
The earliest version of a mantel clock with a rhinoceros base dates to before 1747, when the inventory drawn up upon the death of the maître-fondeur Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain's wife mentions,
deux pendules au rhinoceros l'une pour modèle et l'autre finie prisées ensembles la somme de 140 l.
As this predates the 1749 pilgrimage of the Rotterdam rhinoceros to Paris, it is likely that Saint-Germain had looked to popular graphic sources such as Albrecht Dürer's celebrated engraving of 1515, reproduced here.
Three distinct models of this mantel clock by Saint-Germain are recognized. The first and earliest group, clearly based on the Dürer engraving due to the large scales of the rhinoceros' legs, is represented by a clock formerly in the Alexander collection, sold Christie's New York, 30 April 1999, lot 115 ($150,000), one ilustrated in E. Niehüser, French Bronze Clocks, 1700-1830: A Study of the Figural Images, Atglen, 1999, p. 111, fig. 176, another sold anonymously at Christie's London, 6 July 1978, lot 37, and a fourth sold from the Collection Viel, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 24 May 1932, lot 51. Interestingly, all of the examples from this earliest group were clearly modelled separately from the ormolu base, as it is naturalistically modelled without incorporating plain recesses to take the feet.
A second model, represented by the clock on offer, probably based on Johann Joachim Kändler's figure of a rhinoceros, modelled for Meissen in 1747 upon the animal's visit to Dresden, is slightly less stylized with the beast's head rearing. Another in bronze is illustrated in J.-D. Augarde, 'Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain (1719-91): Bronzearbeiten zwischen Rocaille und Klassizismus' in H. Ottomeyer & P Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. II, p. 525, fig. 2, and a third was sold anonymously, Christies New York, 30 October 1996, lot 417 ($332,500), the latter being the only rhinoceros clock mentioned that is virtually identical to the present lot. A further example in porcelain, dating from 1752, formerly in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Franklin N. Groves, was sold in these Rooms, 15 October 1988, lot 37.
The final model was almost certainly executed during 1749 when the rhinoceros was in Paris, where it was available for first hand study. Examples of this type include one in the Grog-Carven collection at the Musée du Louvre (illustrated in P. Kjellberg, Encyclopédie de la Pendule française du Moyen Age au XXe Siècle, Paris, 1997, p. 129, fig. D), another formerly in the Roberto Polo collection, sold Sotheby's New York, 3 November 1989, lot 44, and a third formerly with Alexander & Berendt, London, sold anonymously Christie's Monaco, 5 December 1992, lot 73.
No two of the pendules au rhinoceros discussed above have movements signed by the same horloger, further emphasizing how widespread the production of this model was.
MADAME INFANTE AND THE RHINOCEROS CLOCK
The marriage of the eldest daughter of Louis XV, Louise-Elisabeth, Princess of Parma (1727-1759), to the Infante Philippe of Spain, Duke of Parma, in 1739 and the establishment of their court in Parma necessitated the refurbishment of the palace at Colorno in the most à la mode Parisian taste. Indeed, the Princess of Parma mentioned this exciting possibility in a letter to the duchesse de Luynes:
Colorno pourrait devenir très joli avec une personne de votre goüt. Il ya a peu de réparations à y faire pour y habiter mais beaucoup pour le rendre comme il pourrait être.
Madame Infante made several trips to Paris - one in 1749, another from September 1752 to September 1753, and a third from September 1757 until her death there in December 1759. Returning from her first trip, she was accompanied by thirty-four wagons of furniture and clothes purchased from the city's leading marchand-merciers, while the cost of the purchases from her 1752 trip alone totalled 200,000 livres (C. Briganti, Curioso Itinerario delle Collezioni Ducali Parmesi, Milan, 1969).
It is interesting to note that a Saint-Germain mantel clock with a modelled bronze rhinoceros base identical to the clock on offer is depicted in the 1765 portrait of Princess Luisa of Parma by Laurent Pécheux (Palazzo Pitti, Florence), reproduced here. The Infanta's clock was most likely purchased during her 1749 trip, as this coincided directly with the presence of the Rotterdam rhinoceros in Versailles and Paris.