Lot 43
43
AN ORMOLU CARTEL BAROMETER of Transitional style, the circular glazed dial inscribed PASSEMENT OPTICIAN DU ROY/ Suivant La COUR VERSAILLES, flanked by putti below a ribbon-suspended draped cresting with billing doves mounted on quivers of arrows, with floral-swagged mask base, late 19th Century, stamped twice with AL monogram

Details
AN ORMOLU CARTEL BAROMETER of Transitional style, the circular glazed dial inscribed PASSEMENT OPTICIAN DU ROY/ Suivant La COUR VERSAILLES, flanked by putti below a ribbon-suspended draped cresting with billing doves mounted on quivers of arrows, with floral-swagged mask base, late 19th Century, stamped twice with AL monogram
The dial 8¼in. (21cm.) diameter; 35in. (89cm.) high

Lot Essay

Siméon Passement designed the elaborate movement of the astronomical clock made by Caffieri for the Cabinet de la Pendule at Versailles in 1750. The dial of the present lot is derived from a type of which an example is in the Kress collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (see: S. Eriksen, Early Neo-Classicism in France, London, 1974, pp. 348-9 and pl. 199)

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