DESCHAMPS, PARIS. LAST QUARTER 18TH CENTURY. THE CASE BY ROBERT OSMOND

Details

A LOUIS XVI ORMOLU STRIKING CARTEL CLOCK
DESCHAMPS, PARIS. LAST QUARTER 18TH CENTURY. THE CASE BY ROBERT OSMOND
The case surmounted by an urn above a female mask, the sides with ribbons and husk trails, stamped to one side OSMOND, the white enamel Roman and Arabic dial signed Deschamps/A' PARIS, pierced and chased ormolu hands, the movement with square plates with canted angles and joined by backpinned tapering cylindrical pillars, eight day twin barrel movement with silk suspension, anchor escapement, countwheel strike on bell, the backplate with repeat signature; pendulum, winding key
73 cm. high

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Lot Essay

This model, conceived in the elegant goût grec was almost certainly first executed by Robert Osmond. Maître-fondeur en terre et sable from 1746 and appointed juré des fondeurs in 1756, Osmond often signed his pieces. Influenced by the bronzier Philippe Caffiéri, Osmond was one of the first to interpret the new neo-classical style. His work was much in demand among sophisticated collectors and aristocratic patrons. As a result, his atelier flourished in the early 1760s. Assisted by his nephew Jean-Baptiste Osmond, maître-fondeur in 1764, who succeeded him on his death in 1789, the Osmonds included most of the avant-garde elite of French society amongst their clients.

A clock of similar design is illustrated in P. Kjellberg, La Pendule Française, Paris 1997, p. 194. and in H. Ottomeyer & P. Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, Vol. II (München, 1986), p. 184-185.

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