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Lot Essay
Porcelain cases for lyre-shaped clocks were first produced at the Sèvres Manufactory in 1785. Made in turquoise blue, green, pink and bleu nouveau, the latter was the most popular ground color. The clockmaker D.D. Kinable was the largest buyer of such cases from the factory, buying thirteen between 1795 and 1807. An example in bleu nouveau, delivered on approval to George IV at Carlton House on 12 October 1828 by the Paris dealer Lafontaine and subsequently purchased by the King, was exhibited at the Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London, 'Sèvres Porcelain from the Royal Collection', 1979-1980, Exhibition Catalogue, pp. 79-80, no. 73. Another, now in the Louvre (inv. O.A.R.483 - P. Verlet, Les Bronzes Dorés Français du XVIIIe siècle, 1987, p. 41, ill. 32), the dial of which is signed Coteau 1787, was originally at Versailles, where it is recorded in the Salon des Jeux: 'Une pendule de cheminé en porcelaine de Sèvres fond bleu cadran 4 aiguilles, orné de rangs de perles et guirlandes de fleurs, le haut terminé par un soleil sous verre de 22 pouces de haut. It was valued at 1600 livres.'
An unattributed drawing for a lyre-form clock is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and illustrated in M. L. Myers, French Architectural and Ornamental Drawings of the Eighteenth Century, New York, 1992, p. 204, no. 121 (60.692.8).
Examples of lyre clocks in gros bleu Sèvres porcelain with Zodiac dials signed by Kinable include that from the Hodgkins Collection, now in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore (no.58 2 32); another sold from the Good Collection, Christie's London, 17 July 1895, lot 270; another from Lord Tweedmouth's (d.1894) Collection at Brook House, sold at Christie's London, 25 May 1932, lot 715; and a further example with Maurice Segoura, Paris, 1988. The use of blue lapis porcelain appears to be somewhat rarer.
An unattributed drawing for a lyre-form clock is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and illustrated in M. L. Myers, French Architectural and Ornamental Drawings of the Eighteenth Century, New York, 1992, p. 204, no. 121 (60.692.8).
Examples of lyre clocks in gros bleu Sèvres porcelain with Zodiac dials signed by Kinable include that from the Hodgkins Collection, now in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore (no.58 2 32); another sold from the Good Collection, Christie's London, 17 July 1895, lot 270; another from Lord Tweedmouth's (d.1894) Collection at Brook House, sold at Christie's London, 25 May 1932, lot 715; and a further example with Maurice Segoura, Paris, 1988. The use of blue lapis porcelain appears to be somewhat rarer.