AN ITALIAN NEO-CLASSIC GILTWOOD MANTEL CLOCK

Details
AN ITALIAN NEO-CLASSIC GILTWOOD MANTEL CLOCK
LATE 18TH CENTURY, POSSIBLY PIEDMONTESE

With circular enamel dial with roman and arabic chapters within a beaded foliate-carved case surmounted by an allegory of.... with Cupid holding aloft a sphere and a scantily clad maiden astride a foliate-carved stepped plinth centrally carved with a lions' mask issuing pierced scrolling foliage before berried laurel, on sphinx supports and shaped rectangular acanthus-carved base, on ball feet-35½in. (90cm.) high, 18in. (46cm.) wide, 12½in. (22cm.) deep

Lot Essay

Note for lot 84

The crisp carving found on the offered lot is undoubtedly closely related to that on Piedmontese furniture and boiseries designed and executed by the celebrated sculptors and cabinet-makers Giusseppe Maira Bonzanigo, Bartolomeo Botto, Guglielmo Tolfi, and Luigi Buffo. Furniture and boiseries with virtually identical carved ornament are in the Pallazina di Stupinigi and the Palazzo Reale, Turin, and illustrated in Mostra del Barocco Piemontese, exhibition catalogue, 22 June - 10 November 1963, Turin, vol. III, figs. 210, 212 a-b, 314-316.

A related mantel clock carved with recumbant sphinxes and crisply carved scrolling foliage was offered in these Rooms, 25 October 1991, lot 77.