AN ORMOLU PENDULE A L'ELEPHANT

FIRST HALF 19TH CENTURY

細節

AN ORMOLU PENDULE A L'ELEPHANT
First half 19th Century
Of Louis XV style, the circular enamel dial with Roman chapters within a bamboo superstructure surmounted by a Chinese couple on a cushion, on an elephant with a painted bronze mahout and on a foliate scrolled naturalistic plinth, The movement signed 'Gustav Becker Freiburg in Schl.' and numbered '1201952', the dial chipped, hands detached, previously with further tassels, minor restorations

拍品專文

The elephant is richly draped in the 17th Century fashion as illustrated in 17th Century Beauvais tapestries from the Chinese series designed by G. L. Vernansal, but its mahout and richly tasseled cushion relates to the Meissen factory's 'Sultan' elephant model executed in the 1740s by J. J. Kandler. Related 18th Century clocks are illustrated E. Hiehuser, Die franzsische Bronzeuhr, Munich, 1997, pp. 240-241. Another Louis-Philippe clock, of this model and including a monkey perched on the elephant's back, has been recorded with a movement signed by Leroy of Paris.