LATE 18TH CENTURY

Details

A DIRECTOIRE ORMOLU AND PATINATED BRONZE MANTEL CLOCK
LATE 18TH CENTURY
The circular white enamelled Arabic dial signed 'Deverberie' and 'Int. Ft. Rúe Barbet à Paris' with pierced ormolu hands and eight day twin barrel movement with silk suspension and countwheel strike on bell, within a drum-shaped case surmounted by a seated female figure with a plumed skirt and headdress emblematic of America, with arrow and quiver above an alligator and flanked by a palm tree, on a rectangular rounded and spreading base decorated with serpents and floral garlands and on toupie feet, lacking two feet
18½ in. (47 cm.) high; 14½ in. (36.5 cm.) wide; 6 in. (15 cm.) deep

Provenance

A further example was sold by The Lady Grantley, Christie's, London, 4 July 1996, lot 226.

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

This clock celebrates the Continent of America and is an allegory of L'Amérique after the design signed and dated No.12 Deverberie due trois Pluviose an Sept (1799) in the cabinet des Estampes, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (H. Ottomeyer, P. Pröschel et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol.I, p.381, fig. 5.15.28). The design is inscribed by the Parisian clock-maker and marchand mercier De Verberie, the very person who signed the dial of this clock. De Verberie, who in 1804 had a shop at the Boulevard du Temple, sold clocks representing a series of the Continents, including this à l'Américaine.

A clock of the same model, in the Musée Paul Dupuy, Toulouse, is illustrtated in Tardy, La Pendule Française, Paris, 1967-69, vol.II, p.357, and another one from the collection of the late Michael Behrens was sold, Christie's, London, 11 June 1998, lot 58.

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