Lot Essay
Joseph Debon, horloger de Monseigneur le duc d'Orléans between 1776 and 1788. Debon's clients included the duc d'Orléans, the comtesse de Saint Paul, Alexandre de Ségur and the marquis de Saint Chamand.
Joseph Coteau, maître in 1778, was employed at the Sèvres factory from 1780 - 1784. Originally from Geneva, claimed that he found a method d'appliquer solidement l'or marié avec les émaux de toutes couleurs sur la porcelaine, and by 1780 his name first appears on the kiln records at Sèvres. Coteau was appointed Peintre-émailleur du roi et de la Manufacture Royale de Sèvres circa 1780 and by 1784 his production was considerable, receiving 4520 livres from the Manufacture de Sèvres for executed commissions.
A clock of virtually identical model but with a grey marble, a pearled chain to the urn and with a movement by Robin said to have been in the French Royal Collection and is in the Musée des arts décoratifs, Paris. (H. Ottomeyer P. Pröschel et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, p. 226, fig. 4.1.2 and in P. Verlet, Les Bronzes Dorés Français du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1987, p. 313, fig. 344). In the inventory of Marie-Antoinette's clocks, drawn up in 1793 by Robin, a model of this type is recorded as no. 33. A design for this model is in the Esmerian Collection at the Metropolitan Museum, New York, and has tentatively been attributed to Daguerre. A further version, with identical marble but movement by Montjoye, is in the Swedish Royal collection and illustrated in situe at Drottningholm in the Ehrenstrahlsalongen in B. von Malmborg, Slott och Herresäten i Sverige, De Kungliga Slotten, Malmö, 1971, p. 160 and p. 213.
A clock of identical design with movement including calendar and moon phases by Robert Robin and dial signed Coteau and dated 1785, was sold anonymously at Christie's New York, 18 May 1989, lot 61 for $ 77,000. A further model with movement by Edmé Causard was sold anonymoulsy at Christie's Monaco, 7 December 1987, lot 51.
Joseph Coteau, maître in 1778, was employed at the Sèvres factory from 1780 - 1784. Originally from Geneva, claimed that he found a method d'appliquer solidement l'or marié avec les émaux de toutes couleurs sur la porcelaine, and by 1780 his name first appears on the kiln records at Sèvres. Coteau was appointed Peintre-émailleur du roi et de la Manufacture Royale de Sèvres circa 1780 and by 1784 his production was considerable, receiving 4520 livres from the Manufacture de Sèvres for executed commissions.
A clock of virtually identical model but with a grey marble, a pearled chain to the urn and with a movement by Robin said to have been in the French Royal Collection and is in the Musée des arts décoratifs, Paris. (H. Ottomeyer P. Pröschel et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, p. 226, fig. 4.1.2 and in P. Verlet, Les Bronzes Dorés Français du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1987, p. 313, fig. 344). In the inventory of Marie-Antoinette's clocks, drawn up in 1793 by Robin, a model of this type is recorded as no. 33. A design for this model is in the Esmerian Collection at the Metropolitan Museum, New York, and has tentatively been attributed to Daguerre. A further version, with identical marble but movement by Montjoye, is in the Swedish Royal collection and illustrated in situe at Drottningholm in the Ehrenstrahlsalongen in B. von Malmborg, Slott och Herresäten i Sverige, De Kungliga Slotten, Malmö, 1971, p. 160 and p. 213.
A clock of identical design with movement including calendar and moon phases by Robert Robin and dial signed Coteau and dated 1785, was sold anonymously at Christie's New York, 18 May 1989, lot 61 for $ 77,000. A further model with movement by Edmé Causard was sold anonymoulsy at Christie's Monaco, 7 December 1987, lot 51.