A GEORGE III ORMOLU AND WHITE MARBLE ASTRONOMICAL MINIATURE STRIKING SKELETON CLOCK IN THE LOUIS XVI STYLE

MARTINET, LONDON, CIRCA 1780

Details

A GEORGE III ORMOLU AND WHITE MARBLE ASTRONOMICAL MINIATURE STRIKING SKELETON CLOCK IN THE LOUIS XVI STYLE
martinet, london, circa 1780
The arched gilt dial with white enamel Roman and Arabic chapter disc with pierced blued steel arrow-head hands, outer calendar ring for the months with their zodiac signs and relevant number of days, subsidiary enamel discs above for day of week, date and four seasons [Printemea/Eté/Automne/Hiver], signed at the base on two enamel disks Martinet, London, the movement with rectangular plates with four pillars and twin going barrels, anchor escapement with silk-suspended pendulum with crescent-shaped pendulum bob, the countwheel strike on a bell under the base via a vertically positioned steel rod, finely painted revolving enamel moon phase disc beneath an ormolu sunburst, twin flambeau urn finials flanked by mercury and alcohol thermometers with silvered scales mounted on marble pedestals, the rectangular white marble base on ball feet, the front applied with a white enamel plaque inscribed Let Time Fly and Make Use of It; arched gilt-framed glass shade

Literature

Derek Roberts, Continental and American Skeleton Clocks, Schiffer, 1989, pp. 20-21, figs. 9a, b + c

Lot Essay

The present clock was almost certainly retailed in London. Derek Roberts, Continental and American Skeleton Clocks op. cit. comments on its style being typical of French products of the Louis XVI period and indeed notes that the back of the dial plate is signed by a French maker Delauney. Martinet was presumably a descendant of James Martinet whose family emigrated from France circa 1700.

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