A LOUIS XV ORMOLU-MOUNTED TULIPWOOD LONG CASE CLOCK

CIRCA 1760, THE DIAL SIGNED JEAN ANDR LEPAUTE

細節

A LOUIS XV ORMOLU-MOUNTED TULIPWOOD LONG CASE CLOCK
Circa 1760, the dial signed Jean Andr Lepaute
The circular white-enamelled dial with Roman and Arabic chapters with pierced and chased hour and minute hands, signed LEPAUTE H. DU ROI/PARIS, within a lyre-form case surmounted by an urn and a mask mask issuing acanthus leaves and draped with berried husk chains, the front door and sides chevron-veneered, the lenticle framed with cast C-scroll mounts surmounted by a scientific trophy over concave molded base with husk-cast garlands, the dial re-enamelled
82in. (210cm.) high, 25in. (63.5cm.) wide, 10in. (25.5cm.) deep

拍品專文

Jean-Andr Lepaute, 1720-1789 and his brother Jean-Baptiste, 1727-1802 were the original founders of a dynasty of Parisian clockmakers who all made a significant contribution to French horology. The sons of a blacksmith, it was Jean-Andr who broke the parental bonds first and set up the first workshop in Paris in 1740. Like other brilliant clockmakers he quickly impressed the academia and made important contacts that were to shape his prosperous life. To this end his marriage was the greatest coup in that he married in 1761 Nicole Reine Etable de la Brire who was considered at the time one of the country's great academics, a most unusual accolade for a woman at that time.

The two brothers wisely took their nephews Pierre Henry and Pierre Bazile into apprenticeship thereby ensuring the company's prosperity. The company made the Paris city Hall clock which had equation of time and showed day-by-day the sun's return to the meridian.