A LOUIS XV ORMOLU BRACKET/CARTEL CLOCK

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The Property of the late SIR FRANK FRASER DARLING Sold by Order of the Trustees (Lots 33-37)

Details

A LOUIS XV ORMOLU BRACKET/CARTEL CLOCK The later cylinder movement with outside count-wheel striking on a single bell, the later white enamel dial inscribed Fieffe, Her De L'Observatoire, with blue enamel Roman numerals and black Arabic numerals, enclosed by a circular glazed door, the drum-shaped frame cast with rockwork and flanked by trailing flowering foliage, the rockwork-cast pediment surmounted by a seated Chinaman, a further Chinese horn blower seated to his left, and a dog to his right, pierced panels to the sides, on scrolled foliate-cast feet, the pierced asymmetrical-cast bracket chased with scrolling foliage, flowerheads and c-scrolls and surmounted by a figure of a deer enclosed by acorn and foliage-cast border, above a scrolling foliate-trailed boss, stamped once with the C Couronné Poincon to one of the scrolled feet and twice with the letter K, the key and pendulum stamped Fieffe 13¾in. (35cm) wide, 26in. (66cm) high

Provenance

Purchased by Sir Frank Fraser Darling from Mallett at Bourdon House Ltd., November 27th, 1967.
The Late Sir Frank Fraser Darling, Shefford-Woodlands House, Newbury, Berkshire, thence by family descent.

Lot Essay

This cartouche case, with its serpentined and flowered-festooned Roman foliage and scalloped clock-face wreathed by sunrays, is conceived in the late Louis XV picturesque manner, and is embellished with a hunting scene recalling the sun-god Apollo and moon-goddess Diana, deities of the chase. A Chinese, now lacking his sunshade is seated on its voluted pediment and draws attention to an Oriental huntsman summoning a hound, while a stag emerges from the oak foliage of its shell-encrusted bracket. The case however bears the 1740's 'crowned c' tax brand, which was introduced in March 1745 for copper-incorporated metal alloys and lasted until February 1749. Jean-Jacques Fieffe (maitre 1725, d.1770), of the rue de la veille draperie, supplied clocks to the Paris Observatory during the 1730's. One of his cartels, with dragon hunt embellishments, was formerly in the Paris collection of the 4th Marquess of Hertford (d.1870) (see P. Hughes, Clocks and Barometers in the Wallace Collection, London, 1994 pp.38 and 39); while the case of one of his clocks formerly in the Chateau de Ferrieres collection of Baron Mayer Amschel de Rothschild (d.1874) is attributed to the sculptor/cabinet-maker Charles Cressent (d.1768) (see C. Bremer-David, Decorative Arts of the J. Paul Getty Museum, California no. 133)

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