A LATE LOUIS XVI ORMOLU, PATINATED BRONZE, AND ROUGE GRIOTTE MANTEL CLOCK
PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION (Lots 260-261)
A LATE LOUIS XVI ORMOLU, PATINATED BRONZE, AND ROUGE GRIOTTE MANTEL CLOCK

CIRCA 1780-95, POSSIBLY BY FRANÇOIS RÉMOND

Details
A LATE LOUIS XVI ORMOLU, PATINATED BRONZE, AND ROUGE GRIOTTE MANTEL CLOCK
Circa 1780-95, possibly by François Rémond
The circular white-enamelled dial with Roman and Arabic chapter rings signed 'G. Merlet/Manière á Paris' with ormolu engraved and pierced scrolling strapwork minute and hour hands within a beaded casing, the back of the movement stamped '19197/48899', the casing surmounted by a Putto and supported by two classical maidens above a putti-lined frieze and acanthus edge, on a later stepped griotte marble base with a further pierced palmette frieze and gadrooned edge
25in. (64cm.) high, 27in. (68½cm.) wide, 9½in (24cm.) deep

Lot Essay

Charles-Guillaume Manière, mac<->tre in 1778.

The clockmaker Charles-Guillaume Manière was installed on the rue des Prouvaires in 1781 with his father, then the rue des Merciers in 1789, rue Christine in 1806 and rue Bertin Poirée about 1810-12. He was one of the great clockmakers of the Louis XVI period and worked for the marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre. The inventory at the death of Daguerre in 1789 revealed six clocks by Manière of various subjects.
G. Merlet is recorded as an enameller in the rue des Lavandi Sainte-Opportune in 1812. His signature is found to the counter-enamel of a mantel clock in the Wallace Collection by Jean-Baptiste Lepaute (P. Hughes, The Wallace Collection: Catalogue of Furniture, London, 1996, vol. 1, pp. 503-508, cat. no. 112 (F269)).

An identical model of clock without the later base sold anonymously, Sotheby's London, 26 June 1987, lot 146, and again Sotheby's Monaco, 17 June 1988, lot 686 (illustrated on the catalogue cover). Another clock with similar composition of two female support figures beneath a canopy, also by Manière and attributed by Christian Baulez to François Rémond, was sold from a Private European Collection, Sotheby's Monaco, 20 June 1994, lot 204 (illustrated on the cover). These clocks likely derive from the drawings of Jean-Guillaume Moitte (1746-1810).

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