THE MOVEMENT BY JEAN-ANTOINE GARRIGUES

Details

AN EMPIRE ORMOLU AND VERDE ANTICO MANTEL CLOCK
The movement by Jean-Antoine Garrigues
The circular white enamel dial with Roman chapters signed 'GARRIGUES A PARIS', the twin barrel movement with silk suspension and countwheel strike on bell, framed by a ribbon-tied floral wreath, within a square case surmounted by a tazza and drapery, flanked by a seated maiden holding the a double-faced jester in her left hand and Cupid leaning against her breast, the moulded rectangular seat decorated with an owl, on a moulded rectangular plinth with masks, on winged-lion feet with paper label to reverse '4[?]994', the pendulum numbered '1181'
17½ in. (44.5 cm.) high; 18 in. (46 cm.) wide; 7½ in. (19 cm.) deep

Provenance

Sold Sotheby's, London, 20 May 1988, lot 147 (£3,740).

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

Jean-Antoine Garrigues, maître in 1782, recorded in the rue de Grenelle from 1789 to 1790 and later in the rue du Chantre 1800 until 1812.

The clock, incorporated in a flower-wreathed altar, recalls the playful hours and Feast of Bacchus with a jesting bacchantae educating Cupid, while seated on a pedestal bearing Minerva's owl. Its marble plinth is wreathed by bas-reliefs of bacchic masks and supported by Apollo's griffin monopodiae.

The feature of a jester-sporting Cupid accompanying the Erato, Muse of lyric poetry, appeared in a 1799 clock design (numbered 5) by the Parisian clock-maker De Verberie of the Boulevard du Temple (preserved in the Cabinet des Estampes, at the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris).

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