.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
André-Charles Boulle, appointed Ebéniste, Ciseleur, Doreur et Sculpteur du Roi in 1672.
Jacques Thuret, Horloger du Roi in 1694.
In its overall form and proportions, the Wildenstein clock is a simplified variant of the magnificent and sculptural régulateur supplied by André-Charles Boulle to Louis-Alexandre de Bourbon, comte de Toulouse, the illegitimate son of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan (1687-17370, who was elected Admiral de France in 1683 at the age of five. Now in the Louvre, the Toulouse clock is discusseed in D. Alcouffe et al., Furniture Collections in the Louvre, Dijon, 1993, no. 31, pp.102-5. The maritime content of the ornament on the Louvre clock corresponded closely with the decoration of the Galerie Dorée at the hôtel de Toulouse in Paris (now the Banque de France), which was designed for the Prince by Robert de Cotte, architect, and François-Antoine Vassé, dessinateur Général de la Marine Royale, between 1717-18.
A regulateur by André-Charles Boulle of similar basic form but decorated with Boulle marquetry throughout the case was formerly in the Assemblé Nationale, Paris (illustrated in Tardy, La Pendule Française, paris, n.d., p.61). This latter regulateur, with movement by Lebon, was supplied to Cardinal de Chabot for the hôtel de Rohan.
Elements of the Wildenstein regulateur - in particular the scrolled pelta-shaped glazed section and the flora-trellis pattern of the Boulle marquetry - are shared with a drawing in the musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. Formerly attributed to Oppenordt but more recently to Boulle himself (H. Ottomeyer, P. Pröschel et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, 1, p.44, 1.4.20), this drawing served as the prototype for the armoire with régulateur in the Wallace Collection (P. Hughes, The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Furniture II, London, 1996, p. 174 (F429).
This same floral-trellis decoration is seen on the long-case clock almost certainly bought from Boulle by Prince Henri-Jules de Bourbon- Condé in 1707-8 for the Petit Luxembourg (sold anonymosuly at Christie's New York, 2 November 2000, lot 209; illustrated in A. Pradère, Les Ebénistes Français de Louis XIV à la Revolution, Paris, 1989, p. 102, fig. 58. In the 1732 inventory after Boulle's death there was a description of: 'item 47--une boeste de modèles de grande tête de saturne avec des ornements de la pendule secondes de Mr. le Prince de Cond pesant 16 livres.'
THURET AND BOULLE
The clockmaker Thuret who signed the movement may be Isaac Thuret (died 1706) or more probably his son Jacques Thuret (1669-1738). Jacques Thuret is thought to have worked closely with Boulle having provided the movements for numerous clocks attributed to him and overseeing a workshop close to Boulle in the Galeries du Louvre.
Jacques Thuret, Horloger du Roi in 1694.
In its overall form and proportions, the Wildenstein clock is a simplified variant of the magnificent and sculptural régulateur supplied by André-Charles Boulle to Louis-Alexandre de Bourbon, comte de Toulouse, the illegitimate son of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan (1687-17370, who was elected Admiral de France in 1683 at the age of five. Now in the Louvre, the Toulouse clock is discusseed in D. Alcouffe et al., Furniture Collections in the Louvre, Dijon, 1993, no. 31, pp.102-5. The maritime content of the ornament on the Louvre clock corresponded closely with the decoration of the Galerie Dorée at the hôtel de Toulouse in Paris (now the Banque de France), which was designed for the Prince by Robert de Cotte, architect, and François-Antoine Vassé, dessinateur Général de la Marine Royale, between 1717-18.
A regulateur by André-Charles Boulle of similar basic form but decorated with Boulle marquetry throughout the case was formerly in the Assemblé Nationale, Paris (illustrated in Tardy, La Pendule Française, paris, n.d., p.61). This latter regulateur, with movement by Lebon, was supplied to Cardinal de Chabot for the hôtel de Rohan.
Elements of the Wildenstein regulateur - in particular the scrolled pelta-shaped glazed section and the flora-trellis pattern of the Boulle marquetry - are shared with a drawing in the musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. Formerly attributed to Oppenordt but more recently to Boulle himself (H. Ottomeyer, P. Pröschel et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, 1, p.44, 1.4.20), this drawing served as the prototype for the armoire with régulateur in the Wallace Collection (P. Hughes, The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Furniture II, London, 1996, p. 174 (F429).
This same floral-trellis decoration is seen on the long-case clock almost certainly bought from Boulle by Prince Henri-Jules de Bourbon- Condé in 1707-8 for the Petit Luxembourg (sold anonymosuly at Christie's New York, 2 November 2000, lot 209; illustrated in A. Pradère, Les Ebénistes Français de Louis XIV à la Revolution, Paris, 1989, p. 102, fig. 58. In the 1732 inventory after Boulle's death there was a description of: 'item 47--une boeste de modèles de grande tête de saturne avec des ornements de la pendule secondes de Mr. le Prince de Cond pesant 16 livres.'
THURET AND BOULLE
The clockmaker Thuret who signed the movement may be Isaac Thuret (died 1706) or more probably his son Jacques Thuret (1669-1738). Jacques Thuret is thought to have worked closely with Boulle having provided the movements for numerous clocks attributed to him and overseeing a workshop close to Boulle in the Galeries du Louvre.