A LOUIS XVI ORMOLU, PATINATED BRONZE AND BLEU TURQUIN MANTEL CLOCK

THE DIAL AND MOVEMENT SIGNED 'LEPAUTE A PARIS', CIRCA 1785

细节

A LOUIS XVI ORMOLU, PATINATED BRONZE AND BLEU TURQUIN MANTEL CLOCK
THE DIAL AND MOVEMENT SIGNED 'LEPAUTE A PARIS', CIRCA 1785
The circular enamel dial with Arabic chapters, later pierced ormolu hands, signed 'Lepaute à Paris', the movement with twin spring barrels, silk suspended pendulum and countwheel strike on a bell, similarly signed backplate in a plinth with a cornucopia spilling fruit and flanked by two ladies, one holding a figure of Victory, above a panel with confronting sphinx and a stiff-leaf rim, the rectangular plinth with bowed front and pearled rim with a central plaque of playing youths flanked by pierced palmettes, on toupie feet, implements lacking to one lady's hand and to plinth near crown
22 in. (56 cm.) wide

来源

Anonymous sale, Christie's, Monaco, 19 June 1988, lot 33.

出版

P. Kjellberg, Encylcopédie de La Pendule Française, Paris, 1997, p. 256, fig. B.

拍品专文

Jean-André Lepaute (1720 - 1787 1789) or his brother Jean-Baptiste Lepaute (1727 - 1802).

The pearl-wreathed marble Grecian cippus altar, celebrating Peace and Plenty with an Egyptian bas-relief of a sphinx-guarded trophy of fruit and corn, is garlanded by vestals, celebrating the Panathenaea and bearing aloft corn, emblematic of Ceres and the Science of Agriculture, while holding a statue of Pallas (Athene), goddess of wisdom and protectress of the Arts. A bas-relief tablet, of festive genii emblematic of the arts and sciences, is tied to its Grecian-stepped plinth by a palm-flowered guilloche enriched with bacchic thyrsae.

Another version of this clock-model, signed 'Charles Le Roy a Paris', features the vestal holding a wreath, while a basket replaces the coronet at her foot (anonymous sale, Sotheby's, Monaco, 14 15 June 1981, lot 130). A further version of this clock also signed by Jean-Baptiste Lepaute is in the Musée des Arts décoratifs, Paris (H. Legellé, dit Tardy, Dictionnaire des Horlogers Français, 3e trimestre, 1972).

THE LEPAUTE DYNASTY
Spelt both Le Paute and Lepaute, this celebrated dynasty of horlogers was founded by Jean-André in 1740. Settled in Paris and appointed horloger du Roi with lodgings in the Luxembourg Palace, his innovative ideas, such as the échappement à repos of 1753, as well as his writings, including an impressive Traité d'Horlogerie, published in 1755, earned him the title maître and lodgings at the Louvre by 1759. His brother also became horloger du Roi and succeeded him in the Galeries du Louvre lodgings in 1775. The next generation of Horlogers strengthened the reputation of the Le Paute Dynasty. Henry Lepaute and his cousin Pierre-Basille bought, then subsequently divided, their uncle's company, creating the signatures 'Henry Lepaute à Paris' and 'Lepaute Oncle & Neveu'. This latter line of the dynasty continued to prosper, Pierre-Basile and his son employing the signature 'Lepaute à Paris', and during the Empire they became the main supplier of clocks to the garde-meuble.

Besides Louis XV, Louis XVI, the comtes de Provence and d'Artois and other members of the royal family and the court, they supplied clocks to the courts of Parma, Spain and Sweden. They collaborated with some of the most celebrated sculptors of the period, notably Clodion, Houdon and Pajou.