Lot Essay
Until Christian Boulez's fascinating article revealing the exact origins of this enduringly popular model, the two clocks supplied by the marchand-mercier Lazare Duvaux for the use of the duc de Bourgogne on 14 October 1758 -
une pendule à sonnerie de J. Le Roy, composée d'une figure couchée représentant l'Etude en bronze doré d'or moulu -
and to the comte du Luc on 9 November had always been considered to be the earliest examples recorded (C. Baulez, 'La Pendule à la Geoffrin Un Modèle a Succès', L'Objet d'Art L'Estampille, April 1989, pp. 34-41). However, in 1757 the marquis de Marigny had already acquired a clock of this model, with a movement by Musson, through Madame Geoffrin. Her reference in her notebooks to the model is very specific
...Ma pendule de Guyard: elle m'est revenue à 3000 livres par ce que j'en ai fait faire le modèle; elle est l'original
Baulez suggests that Guyard was probably Laurent Guiard, the audacious pupil of Edme Bouchardon, whom she may have commissioned between January and September 1754, when he left for Rome. In 1768 Madame Geoffrin gave 'une pendule pareille à la mienne' to Denis Diderot, which survives in the Musée Du Breuil de Saint-Germain at Langres. Other members of Madame Geoffrin's circle who owned 'une pendule à L'Emploi du Temps' included the banker Jean-Joseph de Laborde, the duc de la Vrillière and Horace Walpole at Strawberry Hill. Walpole's clock, which he bought for #50 before 1774, is probably identifiable with the clock now at Waddesdon (G. de Bellaigue, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor: Furniture, Clocks and Gilt Bronzes, London, 1974, 1, no. 17, pp. 104-7)
The duc de Choiseul owned an example which can be seen placed on a cartonnier, probably by Simon Oeben, in a miniature by van Blarenberghe from the Choiseul Box, circa 1770-1 showing the cabinet octagone in the hôtel de Choiseul in Paris. Another was sold in the Blondel de Gagny sale (P. Rémy, Paris, 10-24 December 1776 and 8-22 January 1777)
A number of examples bear the stamps of either Balthazar Lieutaud or Joseph Baumhauer such as that in the Wallace Collection (F.J.B. Watson, Wallace Collection Catalogues: Furniture, London, 1956, F267, plate 55), which has a frieze mount of the Lalive de Jully model (see note to lot 80). Amongst the many horlogers associated with this model Julien Le Roy features most prominently, followed by Ferdinand Berthoud
The pendule à la Geoffrin enjoyed great popularity for over thirty years, with the fondeur-doreur François Remond recorded as selling an example in 1782. After Lazare Duvaux's death, Simon-Philippe Poirier probably became the main marchand-mercier for these clocks. The frieze mount on the Houghton clock suggests that it is a Louis XVI rather than a Louis XV version
une pendule à sonnerie de J. Le Roy, composée d'une figure couchée représentant l'Etude en bronze doré d'or moulu -
and to the comte du Luc on 9 November had always been considered to be the earliest examples recorded (C. Baulez, 'La Pendule à la Geoffrin Un Modèle a Succès', L'Objet d'Art L'Estampille, April 1989, pp. 34-41). However, in 1757 the marquis de Marigny had already acquired a clock of this model, with a movement by Musson, through Madame Geoffrin. Her reference in her notebooks to the model is very specific
...Ma pendule de Guyard: elle m'est revenue à 3000 livres par ce que j'en ai fait faire le modèle; elle est l'original
Baulez suggests that Guyard was probably Laurent Guiard, the audacious pupil of Edme Bouchardon, whom she may have commissioned between January and September 1754, when he left for Rome. In 1768 Madame Geoffrin gave 'une pendule pareille à la mienne' to Denis Diderot, which survives in the Musée Du Breuil de Saint-Germain at Langres. Other members of Madame Geoffrin's circle who owned 'une pendule à L'Emploi du Temps' included the banker Jean-Joseph de Laborde, the duc de la Vrillière and Horace Walpole at Strawberry Hill. Walpole's clock, which he bought for #50 before 1774, is probably identifiable with the clock now at Waddesdon (G. de Bellaigue, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor: Furniture, Clocks and Gilt Bronzes, London, 1974, 1, no. 17, pp. 104-7)
The duc de Choiseul owned an example which can be seen placed on a cartonnier, probably by Simon Oeben, in a miniature by van Blarenberghe from the Choiseul Box, circa 1770-1 showing the cabinet octagone in the hôtel de Choiseul in Paris. Another was sold in the Blondel de Gagny sale (P. Rémy, Paris, 10-24 December 1776 and 8-22 January 1777)
A number of examples bear the stamps of either Balthazar Lieutaud or Joseph Baumhauer such as that in the Wallace Collection (F.J.B. Watson, Wallace Collection Catalogues: Furniture, London, 1956, F267, plate 55), which has a frieze mount of the Lalive de Jully model (see note to lot 80). Amongst the many horlogers associated with this model Julien Le Roy features most prominently, followed by Ferdinand Berthoud
The pendule à la Geoffrin enjoyed great popularity for over thirty years, with the fondeur-doreur François Remond recorded as selling an example in 1782. After Lazare Duvaux's death, Simon-Philippe Poirier probably became the main marchand-mercier for these clocks. The frieze mount on the Houghton clock suggests that it is a Louis XVI rather than a Louis XV version