VILLEMSENS, PARIS, CIRCA 1820

Details

A Restauration small ormolu mantel timepiece
Villemsens, Paris, Circa 1820
Modelled with a figure Apollo and with musical trophies, the silvered dial with Roman chapter ring and engine-turned centre, steel Breguet hands, the eight day single barrel movement with silk suspension and stamped VILLEMSENS/A PARIS; with pendulum, and with a later paper property label for Princess Margaret
10¾ in. (27.5 cm.) high

Special notice

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Lot Essay

The mantel-clock, designed in the early 19th century Grecian fashion, celebrates Lyric Poetry with Apollo's lyre being played at a Venus rose-wreathed altar, whose stepped plinth is enriched with a bas-relief depicting a trophy of instruments accompanying the poetry-deity's lyre. The case, possibly designed for a movement by a Parisian clock-maker such as Le Roy Fils, (fl. 1817-24) bears the name of the Parisian bronze-foundry Villemsens, who later exhibited at London's 1851.

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