The truncated-columnar pedestals, of Grecian form with husk-filled fluted shafts and ribbon-tied reed and oak torus mouldings at the base, are hung with ribbon-tied medallions of notable figures under the Bourbon monarchy, festooned with triumphal laurel baguettes. Their colonne pattern corresponds to that of an urn-capped 'altar' clock designed by Jean-Charles Delafosse (d. 1789), architect and author of a furniture pattern-book, Nouvelle Iconologie Historique, 1768, (see: M. David-Weill, Les Dessins de Delafosse, Paris, n.d., pl. 67). Four similar ormolu-enriched pedestals in the Prince Regent's Gallery at Belvoir Castle, Rutland, are likely to have been acquired in the early 19th Century by John Manners, 5th Duke of Rutland (d. 1857) (see: C. Hussey, English Country Houses - Late Georgian, London, 1958, p. 129); and there is a related set at Buckingham Palace (see: R. Garnier, 'Clocks in the Royal Collection', Apollo, September 1993, p. 17). The latter's laurel-filled flutes correspond to those of a pair of column-fronted corner-cupboards, bearing the brand of René Dubois (maître 1763) and sold in the early 19th Century by the celebrated dealer Edward Holmes Baldock (d. 1845) (sold anonymoulsy in these Rooms, 23 March 1972, lot 118). The same pattern cupboards also feature in one of Sir Jeffery Wyatville's 1820s furnishing schemes for King George IV's Windsor Castle (sold anonymously, Sotheby's London, 9 April 1970, lot 180). The Wallace Collection pedestals, originally a set of four, support the busts of Louis de Bourbon, Le Grand Condé (d.1686) and the bust and identical medallion to one of the present pair, depicting Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne (d. 1671) (see: J.G. Mann, Wallace Collection Catalogues: Sculpture, London, 1981, S163-5). The Wallace pedestals were brought from Paris by Robert Henry Herbert, 12th Earl of Pembroke (d. 1862) for his London House at Carlton House Terrace, (sold in these Rooms 5-9 and 12-13 May, 1851, lots 248 and 249). A related set that belonged to Robert Grosvenor , Marquess of Westminster (d. 1845), feature in a photograph of Grosvenor House, Park Lane, London by J. Pearce in London Mansions, London, 1986, fig. 126, while a further set was recorded in the 1823 sale of William Beckford's furnishings at Fonthill Abbey, Wiltshire