LAST QUARTER 19TH CENTURY

The figures representing Night and Day are based upon the marble figures executed by Michelangelo for the tomb of Giuliano de'Medici in the New Sacristy of San Lorenzo in Florence. The allegories subsequently appear flanking a clock in a drawing attributed to André-Charles Boulle which was formerly in the collection of the Staatliche Schlösser und Gärten, Berlin. In 1719 Boulle delivered to Machault d'Arnouville a bureau plat with cartonnier surmounted by a clock with the present figures flanking an hour glass with Father Time's scythe. In 1772, Jean-André Lepaute delivered a related clock to the prince de Condé's Palais-Bourbon, after a design by his architect Antoine-Mathieu Le Carpentier. A garniture centred by a virtually identical clock sold Christie's, New York, 21 April 2005, lot 560 ($26,400).