Lot Essay
This bracket clock and its pedestal display two identical ormolu mounts to the celebrated bureau à pendule made for Maximillian, Elector of Bavaria (d.1726): the espagnolettes heading the cabriole legs of the bureau feature on the corners of the pedestal and the caryatic herms flank the dial on both clocks. This bureau had traditionally been attributed to André-Charles Boulle; however the researches of J.N. Ronfort and J.D. Augarde conclusively prooved that the author was in fact ebéniste Bernard I van Risenburgh. (J.N. Ronfort et J.D. Augarde, 'Le Maître du Bureau de l'Electeur', L'Estampille L'Objet d'Art, January 1991, pp. 42-75.)
This clock and its pedestal represent the missing link between the first pieces produced in the Bernard I van Risenburgh's workshop around 1695 and those, such as the bureau de l'Electeur, dating from after 1715. There are only two other documented bracket clocks of this model, one en première partie, was sold by Lt. Col. William Stirling of Keir, Sotheby's London, 12 July 1963, lot 134 the other was sold from the collection of Mrs Elizabeth Parke Firestone, Christie's New York, 22 - 23 March 1991, lot 890. A single pedestal was sold anonymously in Paris, Palais d'Orsay, 21 February 1978, lot 74.
All the pedestals are embellished with Bérainesque marquetry, the scrolling foliage, birds and animals under canopies, with urns and masks being recurring motifs. They can be found en contre-partie on bureaux and tables from the earliest productions of the atelier. The marquetry of the upper section on all the pedestals is similar to that which occurs on the back door of a clock with a movement by Thuret in the Wallace Collection (F.J.B. Watson, Catalogue, London, 1956, F.40).
FRANCOIS RABBY
François Rabby (1655-circa1720), was appointed maître horloger between 1686 and 1688. In 1686, he married the widow of the horlger, Corneille Godefroy (d.1681) and in the same year he was appointed horloger de la duchesse d'Orléans. His other clients included la duchesse du Maine and also the painter Nicolas Largillière. He was imprisonned in the Bastille in 1718 for allowing his daughter to marry a huguenot from Geneva in the English Ambassador's chapel.
This clock and its pedestal represent the missing link between the first pieces produced in the Bernard I van Risenburgh's workshop around 1695 and those, such as the bureau de l'Electeur, dating from after 1715. There are only two other documented bracket clocks of this model, one en première partie, was sold by Lt. Col. William Stirling of Keir, Sotheby's London, 12 July 1963, lot 134 the other was sold from the collection of Mrs Elizabeth Parke Firestone, Christie's New York, 22 - 23 March 1991, lot 890. A single pedestal was sold anonymously in Paris, Palais d'Orsay, 21 February 1978, lot 74.
All the pedestals are embellished with Bérainesque marquetry, the scrolling foliage, birds and animals under canopies, with urns and masks being recurring motifs. They can be found en contre-partie on bureaux and tables from the earliest productions of the atelier. The marquetry of the upper section on all the pedestals is similar to that which occurs on the back door of a clock with a movement by Thuret in the Wallace Collection (F.J.B. Watson, Catalogue, London, 1956, F.40).
FRANCOIS RABBY
François Rabby (1655-circa1720), was appointed maître horloger between 1686 and 1688. In 1686, he married the widow of the horlger, Corneille Godefroy (d.1681) and in the same year he was appointed horloger de la duchesse d'Orléans. His other clients included la duchesse du Maine and also the painter Nicolas Largillière. He was imprisonned in the Bastille in 1718 for allowing his daughter to marry a huguenot from Geneva in the English Ambassador's chapel.