BALTAZAR MARTINOT, PARIS, CIRCA 1710, AFTER THE MODEL BY ANDRE-CHARLES BOULLE

An engraving by Jean Bérain, who was neighbour in the Galeries du Louvre to André-Charles Boulle, depicting a mantel clock with similar overall form and harpy supports above a plinth base, is preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Cabinet des Estampes, Paris, and in the Bibliothèque Doucet, Paris (H. Ottomeyer, P. Pröschel et. al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1989, vol. I, p. 48, fig. 1.5.1). This model is discussed by J. N. Ronfort in 'André-Charles Boulle: die Bronzearbeiten und seine Werkstatt im Louvre', Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich 1986, vol. II, pp. 485-488) in which he describes two clocks (Pendules à dôme) in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle as being variants of the harpy model (illustrated in Tardy, La Pendule Française, Paris, 3rd Ed., vol. I, p. 115; F.J. Britten, Old Clocks and Watches & their Makers, Woodbridge, rev. edn., n.d., p. 307, figs. 504 and 505; and C. Jagger Royal Clocks, London, 1983, pp. 124-5). Ronfort dates this model to 1695-1700 and points out that it was particularly fashionable around 1700, the probable date of the terracotta model for a mantel clock with domed cresting attributed to Jean Cornu (1650-1710) now in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu (G. Wilson, European Clocks in the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1996, no. III, pp. 14-19.).