TWO LOUIS XV BRASS-INLAID BROWN TORTOISESHELL AND GILT-BRONZE BAROMETERS by Claude-Joseph Desgodets, each inlaid en première-partie with foliate arabesques, the later circular glazed dials variously inscribed, one signed LINGR CHEVALLIER OPTICIEN DU ROI PLACE DU PONT NEUF, 15 PARIS, the other signed BOVLLET RUE DES JVIFS No. 3 A PARIS, the shaped body mounted with C-scrolls, pierced entrelac and foliate trails above a channelled C-scroll boss, both indistinctly stamped .ESGODE.S and JME, restorations

Details
TWO LOUIS XV BRASS-INLAID BROWN TORTOISESHELL AND GILT-BRONZE BAROMETERS by Claude-Joseph Desgodets, each inlaid en première-partie with foliate arabesques, the later circular glazed dials variously inscribed, one signed LINGR CHEVALLIER OPTICIEN DU ROI PLACE DU PONT NEUF, 15 PARIS, the other signed BOVLLET RUE DES JVIFS No. 3 A PARIS, the shaped body mounted with C-scrolls, pierced entrelac and foliate trails above a channelled C-scroll boss, both indistinctly stamped .ESGODE.S and JME, restorations
42in. (107cm.) high; 9½in. (24cm.) wide (2)
Provenance
Sir Richard Wallace, Bt., Hertford House, London, W.1.
Sir Philip Sassoon, Bt., 25 Park Lane, W.1., recorded in the Large Drawing Room in the pre-1927 inventory
Literature
F.J.B. Watson, Wallace Collection Catalogues: Furniture, London, 1956, F. 69, p. 38
Exhibited
London, 25 Park Lane, W.1., Three French Reigns, February 21 - April 5 1933, no. 488, (Catalogue, p. 67, fig. 94)

Lot Essay

Claude-Joseph Desgodets, mâitre in 1749

Claude-Joseph Desgodets (fl.1740-76), of the rue des Vieux Augustins, specialised in clock-cases, employing leading bronziers such as Jean-Joseph de St. Germain to execute the bronze doré. In 1745 Desgodets denounced the ébéniste Jean Goyer (mâitre in 1760) for plagiarizing his designs

It is interesting to note that Sir Richard Wallace retained a wall-barometer and thermometer, identically mounted but in parquetry rather than Boulle marquetry, in his collection at Hertford House, London (see F.J.B. Watson, op. cit.). Watson noted that a similar barometer by Lange de Bourbon was in the Mme. Louis Burat sale in Paris, 18 June 1937, lot 98. A further parquetry barometer was sold by the Trustees of Lord Hillingdon in these Rooms, 29 June 1972, lot 58

A barometer of this exact model, the dial signed by Cazartelli, is in the State Dining Room at Longleat House, Wiltshire, in the collection of the Marquess of Bath

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