A LOUIS XVI ORMOLU-MOUNTED TULIPWOOD AND AMARANTH REGULATEUR

SIGNED LEPAUTE HGER DU ROI/A PARIS, THE CASE STAMPED JME TWICE AND N.PETIT ONCE, CIRCA 1775

細節
A LOUIS XVI ORMOLU-MOUNTED TULIPWOOD AND AMARANTH REGULATEUR
Signed Lepaute Hger Du Roi/A Paris, the case stamped JME twice and N.PETIT once, circa 1775
The circular white enamelled dial with Roman and Arabic chapter rings and intricately pierced ormolu hour hand, the similarly pierced ormolu minute hand with a sunburst indicating solar time, the blued steel minute hand indicating mean time, with a blued steel center sweeping second hand, below a pierced brass calendar ring in front of an equation cam wheel, the movement with endless rope wind and pin-wheel escapement with grid iron pendulum, set within a fitted front-sliding hood surmounted by an urn above a satyr mask issuing scrolling acanthus and berried husk garlands, the lyre-form case with a centered ribbon-tie above a glazed door on a concave-molded base centered by a sunburst Apollo mask above a bow-front plinth with foliate corner mounts joined by a berried husk garland, the back inscribed in black ink S Pechee, restorations to veneers of plinth
91in. (241.5cm.) high, 25in. (66cm.) wide
展覽
New York, Frick Museum, French Clocks in North American Collections, 1983, cat. 75

拍品專文

Nicolas Petit, matre in 1761

Jean-Andr Lepaute (1720-1789) and his brother Jean-Baptiste (1727-1802) were the founders of one of the most celebrated dynasties of clock-makers, receiving the titles of Horloger du Roi, Horloger de S.A.S le duc de Bourbon and Horloger de Monseigneur, comte d'Artois. Having set up their first workshop in Paris in 1740, as early as 1748 they delivered a monumental clock to Louis XV for the chteau de la Muette and in 1750 created the celebrated clock for the Luxembourg Palace, which enabled them to obtain lodgings there.

They were equally adept at the fashionable neo-classical styles of the 1770's and 1780's, as demonstrated by the striking case by Petit of the Victoria regulator. They employed many of the best sculptors to produce bronzes for their cases, including Clodion, Jean-Antoine Houdon and Auguste Pajou, often after designs by such influential figures as Charles de Wailly and Franois-Joseph Blanger, the comte d'Artois's architect. One of their most famous clocks from later in their career was the Paris City Hall Clock, supplied 1781-6, which had equation of time and showed day by day the sun's return to the meridian.

A closely related rgulateur by Lepaute, in a case by Petit, is in the Kunstgewerbe Museum, Berlin.