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Lot Essay
With its sphinx-supported altar with ram's-headed canted angles inspired by the designs of the architect Jean-Demosthène Dugourc, this clock is closely related to the oeuvre of the ciseleur-doreur Pierre-Philippe Thomire (maître in 1772). An ormolu and rouge griotte marble clock attributed to Thomire and set with a virtually-identical antique altar is illustrated in P. Kjellberg, La Pendule française du Moyen Age au XXe siècle, Paris, 1997, p. 336, fig. c and another example of that model signed P. P. Thomire is known.
The latter was responsible for the Pendule à Porteurs supplied by the horloger Robin in 1788 for the Cabinet des Bains of Marie-Antoinette at the Palais des Tuileries, and this displays a related altar form carried by two classically-draped maidens. This clock is now at now at musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris (bid., p. 266) and another example of it is in the musée des Arts Décoratifs, Madrid (illustrated in P. Verlet, Les Bronzes Dorés Français du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1989, p. 327, figs. 361-62). A further example of this model with a rouge griotte marble altar and base in known (Ibid., p. 267). A pair of candelabra with similar altar-form bases in Sèvres porcelain, signed Thomire doreur à Paris 1791 are now in the Royal Collection in Madrid (illustrated in P. Verlet, Les Bronzes Dorés Français du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1989, p.47, pl.41).
The latter was responsible for the Pendule à Porteurs supplied by the horloger Robin in 1788 for the Cabinet des Bains of Marie-Antoinette at the Palais des Tuileries, and this displays a related altar form carried by two classically-draped maidens. This clock is now at now at musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris (bid., p. 266) and another example of it is in the musée des Arts Décoratifs, Madrid (illustrated in P. Verlet, Les Bronzes Dorés Français du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1989, p. 327, figs. 361-62). A further example of this model with a rouge griotte marble altar and base in known (Ibid., p. 267). A pair of candelabra with similar altar-form bases in Sèvres porcelain, signed Thomire doreur à Paris 1791 are now in the Royal Collection in Madrid (illustrated in P. Verlet, Les Bronzes Dorés Français du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1989, p.47, pl.41).