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 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 nearly identical clock, lacking the lid to the urn, was sold Christie's, London, 14 March 2013, lot 171 (£13,750).