Lot Essay
This celebrated model was referred to as 'le temps qui passe entre l'amour et les gràces during the 18th Century. Initially designed circa 1765, this model is first recorded in gilt-bronze in 1769, when the marchand-mercier Simon-Philippe Poirier delivered one to Madame du Barry at the château de Versailles. Executed by the ciseleur François Vion, the quality of the chasing and gilding was exceptional and the entirely gilt model cost 902 livres. However, the accounts of 21 May 1774 record a further example from 1769:- for Poirier also delivered to 'Madame la comtesse une pendule de bronze représentant les grâces dorée d'or de Germain' at the cost of 2400 livres, and this is now in the Louvre (P.Verlet, Les Bronzes Dorées Français du XVIIIe Siècle, Paris, 1987, p.261 and 279, ills.296 and 308-10). Although the modeller of the original clock is unrecorded, both Falconet and Simon-Louis Boizot, who worked at the Sèvres manufactory from 1773 have been suggested, and certainly the latter's Nymphes à la corbelle group of circa 1778-1780 is of similar character.
A later 1770 design for this 'Pièce de bureau' clock by the fondeur-ciseleur François Vion is conserved in the Bibliothèque Doucet (V1 E15 Res.fol.1) and is illustrated in H.Ottomeyer, P.Pröschel et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol.I, p.179, ill. 3.7.4).
A later 1770 design for this 'Pièce de bureau' clock by the fondeur-ciseleur François Vion is conserved in the Bibliothèque Doucet (V1 E15 Res.fol.1) and is illustrated in H.Ottomeyer, P.Pröschel et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol.I, p.179, ill. 3.7.4).