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Lot Essay
The horloger Charles Thiout, elected maître in 1746.
The C-couronnée poinçon was a tax mark employed between March 1745 and February 1749 on any alloy containing copper.
Clocks incorporating figures of rhinoceros, elephants, bulls and lions were highly fashionable in mid-18th Century Paris. Draughtsmen and ornamenistes routinely produced, copied and plagiarized popular subjects in response to changing tastes and current events. In this way, models were disseminated to a number of workshops.
The arrival of a live rhinoceros in Rotterdam in 1741, and its subsequent travel to Versailles in early January 1749 and then to Paris,where it remained from February to April 1749, exemplifies how current events and fashion were so closely intertwined. Inevitably, the marchands-merciers were quick to seize upon the mania created by the exotic animal's presence, and proceeded to supply objects à la rhinoceros.
SAINT-GERMAIN AND THE RHINOCEROS CLOCK
The earliest version of a mantel clock with a rhinoceros base dates to before 1747, when the inventory drawn up upon the death of the maître-fondeur Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain's wife mentions deux pendules au rhinoceros l'une pour modèle et l'autre finie prisées ensembles la somme de 140 l.
Three distinct models of Rhinoceros mantel clocks by Saint-Germain are recognized. The first and earliest group, clearly based on the Dürer engraving due to the large scales of the rhinoceros' legs, is represented by the current clock; another clock of the same model was sold from the Alexander Collection at Christie's New York, 30 April 1999, lot 115 ($166,500); and a third example sold from the Collection Viel, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 24 May 1932, lot 51. Interestingly, all of the examples from this earliest group were clearly modeled separately from the ormolu base, as it is naturalistically modeled without incorporating plain recesses to take the feet.
A second model, probably based on Johann-Joachim Kändler's figure of a rhinoceros, modeled for Meissen in 1747 upon the animal's visit to Dresden, is slightly less stylized with the beast's head rearing. One in bronze was sold anonymously in these Rooms, 30 October 1996, lot 417, while a further example in porcelain, dating from 1752, formerly in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Franklin N. Groves, was sold in these Rooms, 15 October 1988, lot 37.
The final model was almost certainly executed during 1749 when the rhinoceros was in Paris, where it was available for first hand study. Examples of this type include one in the Grog-Carven collection, Paris, another formerly in the Roberto Polo collection, sold Sotheby's New York, 3 November 1989, lot 44, and a third formerly with Alexander &
Berendt, London, sold anonymously at Christie's Monaco, 5 December 1992, lot 73.
MADAME INFANTE AND THE RHINOCEROS CLOCK
The marriage of the eldest daughter of Louis XV, Louise-Elisabeth, Princess of Parma (1727-1759), to the Infante Philippe of Spain, Duke of Parma, in 1739 and the establishment of their court in Parma necessitated the refurbishment of the palace at Colorno in the most à la mode Parisian taste. Indeed, the Princess of Parma mentioned this exciting possibility in a letter to the duchesse de Luynes: Colorno pourrait devenir très joli avec une personne de votre goût. Il ya a peu de réparations à y faire pour y habiter mais beaucoup pour le rendre comme il pourrait être.
Madame Infante made several trips to Paris - one in 1749, another from September 1752 to September 1753, and a third from September 1757 until her death there in December 1759. Returning from her first trip, she was accompanied by thirty-four wagons of furniture and clothes purchased from the city's leading marchand-merciers, while the cost of the purchases from her 1752 trip alone totaled 200,000 livres (C. Briganti, Curioso Itinerario delle Collezioni Ducali Parmesi, Milan, 1969).
It is interesting to note that a Saint-Germain mantel clock with a modeled bronze rhinoceros facing in the opposite direction, but standing on a base similar to the current clock is depicted in the 1765 portrait of Princess Luisa of Parma by Laurent Pécheux (Palazzo Pitti, Florence). The Infanta's clock was most likely purchased during her 1749 trip, as this coincided directly with the presence of the Rotterdam rhinoceros in Versailles and Paris.
The C-couronnée poinçon was a tax mark employed between March 1745 and February 1749 on any alloy containing copper.
Clocks incorporating figures of rhinoceros, elephants, bulls and lions were highly fashionable in mid-18th Century Paris. Draughtsmen and ornamenistes routinely produced, copied and plagiarized popular subjects in response to changing tastes and current events. In this way, models were disseminated to a number of workshops.
The arrival of a live rhinoceros in Rotterdam in 1741, and its subsequent travel to Versailles in early January 1749 and then to Paris,where it remained from February to April 1749, exemplifies how current events and fashion were so closely intertwined. Inevitably, the marchands-merciers were quick to seize upon the mania created by the exotic animal's presence, and proceeded to supply objects à la rhinoceros.
SAINT-GERMAIN AND THE RHINOCEROS CLOCK
The earliest version of a mantel clock with a rhinoceros base dates to before 1747, when the inventory drawn up upon the death of the maître-fondeur Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain's wife mentions deux pendules au rhinoceros l'une pour modèle et l'autre finie prisées ensembles la somme de 140 l.
Three distinct models of Rhinoceros mantel clocks by Saint-Germain are recognized. The first and earliest group, clearly based on the Dürer engraving due to the large scales of the rhinoceros' legs, is represented by the current clock; another clock of the same model was sold from the Alexander Collection at Christie's New York, 30 April 1999, lot 115 ($166,500); and a third example sold from the Collection Viel, Paris, Galerie Georges Petit, 24 May 1932, lot 51. Interestingly, all of the examples from this earliest group were clearly modeled separately from the ormolu base, as it is naturalistically modeled without incorporating plain recesses to take the feet.
A second model, probably based on Johann-Joachim Kändler's figure of a rhinoceros, modeled for Meissen in 1747 upon the animal's visit to Dresden, is slightly less stylized with the beast's head rearing. One in bronze was sold anonymously in these Rooms, 30 October 1996, lot 417, while a further example in porcelain, dating from 1752, formerly in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Franklin N. Groves, was sold in these Rooms, 15 October 1988, lot 37.
The final model was almost certainly executed during 1749 when the rhinoceros was in Paris, where it was available for first hand study. Examples of this type include one in the Grog-Carven collection, Paris, another formerly in the Roberto Polo collection, sold Sotheby's New York, 3 November 1989, lot 44, and a third formerly with Alexander &
Berendt, London, sold anonymously at Christie's Monaco, 5 December 1992, lot 73.
MADAME INFANTE AND THE RHINOCEROS CLOCK
The marriage of the eldest daughter of Louis XV, Louise-Elisabeth, Princess of Parma (1727-1759), to the Infante Philippe of Spain, Duke of Parma, in 1739 and the establishment of their court in Parma necessitated the refurbishment of the palace at Colorno in the most à la mode Parisian taste. Indeed, the Princess of Parma mentioned this exciting possibility in a letter to the duchesse de Luynes: Colorno pourrait devenir très joli avec une personne de votre goût. Il ya a peu de réparations à y faire pour y habiter mais beaucoup pour le rendre comme il pourrait être.
Madame Infante made several trips to Paris - one in 1749, another from September 1752 to September 1753, and a third from September 1757 until her death there in December 1759. Returning from her first trip, she was accompanied by thirty-four wagons of furniture and clothes purchased from the city's leading marchand-merciers, while the cost of the purchases from her 1752 trip alone totaled 200,000 livres (C. Briganti, Curioso Itinerario delle Collezioni Ducali Parmesi, Milan, 1969).
It is interesting to note that a Saint-Germain mantel clock with a modeled bronze rhinoceros facing in the opposite direction, but standing on a base similar to the current clock is depicted in the 1765 portrait of Princess Luisa of Parma by Laurent Pécheux (Palazzo Pitti, Florence). The Infanta's clock was most likely purchased during her 1749 trip, as this coincided directly with the presence of the Rotterdam rhinoceros in Versailles and Paris.