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Lot Essay
Lésieur, pendulier, rue de la Verrerie, Paris, active 1812-20.
It is interesting to note that the scythe, one of the traditional features of Father Time, actually came to be attributed to the representation when the Greek word for time chronos, became confused with the god of agriculture Cronos, who had a sickle as an attribute.
This model of clock, the base mounted with signs of the Zodiac, is traditionally attributed to Charles-Guillaume Hautemanière, dit Manière. An identical clock, dated 1816, is recorded in the Palais du Luxembourg (see Ernest Dumonthier, Les Bronzes Du Mobilier National, Paris p. 16 and p. 29, fig. 2.). Another from Baron Mayer Amschel de Rothchild's collection at Mentmore was sold Sotheby's house sale, 18-27 May 1977, lot 45 (£2,500). A similar clock, lacking the Zodiac mounts to the base, is illustrated in the Lower Vestibule at Carlton House in W. H. Pyne's Hstory of the Royal Residences, 1819 (see Cedric Jagger, Royal Clocks, London, 1983, figs. 208 and 209). A very similar clock was sold Christie's London, 12 April 1984, lot 49 (£9,720).
It is interesting to note that the scythe, one of the traditional features of Father Time, actually came to be attributed to the representation when the Greek word for time chronos, became confused with the god of agriculture Cronos, who had a sickle as an attribute.
This model of clock, the base mounted with signs of the Zodiac, is traditionally attributed to Charles-Guillaume Hautemanière, dit Manière. An identical clock, dated 1816, is recorded in the Palais du Luxembourg (see Ernest Dumonthier, Les Bronzes Du Mobilier National, Paris p. 16 and p. 29, fig. 2.). Another from Baron Mayer Amschel de Rothchild's collection at Mentmore was sold Sotheby's house sale, 18-27 May 1977, lot 45 (£2,500). A similar clock, lacking the Zodiac mounts to the base, is illustrated in the Lower Vestibule at Carlton House in W. H. Pyne's Hstory of the Royal Residences, 1819 (see Cedric Jagger, Royal Clocks, London, 1983, figs. 208 and 209). A very similar clock was sold Christie's London, 12 April 1984, lot 49 (£9,720).