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Lot Essay
Régulateur au char d'Apollon
This magnificent longcase régulateur clock is a defining object of the divine-right of kingship: perpetuating the analogy of the Bourbon Kings with Apollo, the sun god, who gives life to all things. The symbolism of ornamenting a clock in celebration of Louis XVI confers that the King is the controller of time, as it is Apollo’s chariot which draws the sun across the sky. The passing of time is referenced also in the signs of the Zodiac cast in relief around the dial and the rectangular relief cast plaques to the base: showing, to the front, two putti emblematic of spring and summer and, to the sides, putti emblematic of autumn and winter.
The most splendid neo-classical régulateur ever made, the premier version of ‘The Apollo Regulateur’ was crafted by Berthoud, the greatest horloger of the time, with cabinetry by Balthazar Lieutaud (c. 1720-1780), the foremost ébéniste specializing in clock-cases, and superb mounts by the prime maker of early neo-classical bronzes, Philippe Caffiéri (1714-1774). The premier version is today in The Frick Collection, New York. (T. Dell, Furniture in the Frick Collection, vol. I, New York 1992, p. 314-332). Reputedly first belonging to Marie-Antoinette, the Frick régulateur was a casualty of the revolutionary sales and auctioned in 1790 from the collection of Antoine Freyt, a director of the Compagnie des Assurances de Paris. A virtually identically mounted example, veneered with ebony, is at Versailles (P. Arizzoli-Clémentel, Le mobilier de Versailles, Vol. II, Dijon 2002, no. 4).
Both the Frick régulateur, veneered in kingwood and tulipwood, and the Versailles régulateur, veneered in ebony, were shown at various exhibitions in the 19th century. The Frick régulateur was shown in 1888 at the Hôtel de Chimay ‘Exposition de l’art français sous Louis XIV et sous Louis XV’, lent by the Vicomte de Saint Georges, and again at the Petit Palais Musée Rétrospectif at the Exposition universelle of 1900. The Versailles example was installed at Versailles by Louis Philippe and was later shown at an Exposition rétrospectif in Paris in 1882.
Having seen the régulateurs exhibited in Paris, and responding to their popularity, the great ébénistes of the Belle Époque were inspired to remake the model. The first recorded examples were almost certainly made by Alfred Beurdeley: an ebony veneered clock appeared in the 16 May 1895 sale catalogue of Beurdeley's workshop as lot 38, as attributed to Caffiéri. Recent scholarship suggests that that clock was indeed the work of Beurdeley himself and was presumably displayed in the ébéniste's stand at the World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893 (C. Mestdagh, L'Ameublement d'art français: 1850-1900, Paris 2010, p. 182). An example by Beurdeley is recorded in the collection of Pierre Lécoules, and another with mounts variously signed ‘BY’ for Beurdeley, and later veneered in malachite, sold Christie’s, New York, 19-20 October 2011, lot 118.
Crafted by François Linke, the present régulateur is veneered in kingwood and tulipwood and thus true to the original in the Frick. It is possible that Linke bought the rights to reproduce it, and the models for the bronzes, from a sale of Beurdeley's inventory in 1895. Linke made the model under his title ‘Régulateur Louis XVI acajou’, Index Number 768. One with provenance from François Linke’s daughter at Quai Henri IV, Paris was sold A Private Collection Volume II, Sotheby’s, New York, 19 April 2007, lot 94 ($420,000). It was almost certainly made for one of Linke’s most important clients: Elias Meyer at 16 Grosvenor Square, London. The Meyer commission was placed in two considerable orders in 1909 and a series of captioned photographs of the room settings show it to be one of Linke’s most complete commissions – numbering dozens of pieces, from commodes, vitrines and tables to chandeliers and seat furniture. Elias Meyer died in 1925, and in November 1926 Linke repurchased most of the furniture including, it is thought, the régulateur. Linke is also known to have made a variation replacing the gilt-bronze cresting of Apollo’s chariot with a warlike cupid, ‘enfant geurier’ sculpted by Leon Messagé (see the photograph cliché of Index Number 768 reproduced here, and C. Payne, François Linke: The Belle Époque of French Furniture, Woodbridge, 2003, pl. 200 & pl. 201).
This magnificent longcase régulateur clock is a defining object of the divine-right of kingship: perpetuating the analogy of the Bourbon Kings with Apollo, the sun god, who gives life to all things. The symbolism of ornamenting a clock in celebration of Louis XVI confers that the King is the controller of time, as it is Apollo’s chariot which draws the sun across the sky. The passing of time is referenced also in the signs of the Zodiac cast in relief around the dial and the rectangular relief cast plaques to the base: showing, to the front, two putti emblematic of spring and summer and, to the sides, putti emblematic of autumn and winter.
The most splendid neo-classical régulateur ever made, the premier version of ‘The Apollo Regulateur’ was crafted by Berthoud, the greatest horloger of the time, with cabinetry by Balthazar Lieutaud (c. 1720-1780), the foremost ébéniste specializing in clock-cases, and superb mounts by the prime maker of early neo-classical bronzes, Philippe Caffiéri (1714-1774). The premier version is today in The Frick Collection, New York. (T. Dell, Furniture in the Frick Collection, vol. I, New York 1992, p. 314-332). Reputedly first belonging to Marie-Antoinette, the Frick régulateur was a casualty of the revolutionary sales and auctioned in 1790 from the collection of Antoine Freyt, a director of the Compagnie des Assurances de Paris. A virtually identically mounted example, veneered with ebony, is at Versailles (P. Arizzoli-Clémentel, Le mobilier de Versailles, Vol. II, Dijon 2002, no. 4).
Both the Frick régulateur, veneered in kingwood and tulipwood, and the Versailles régulateur, veneered in ebony, were shown at various exhibitions in the 19th century. The Frick régulateur was shown in 1888 at the Hôtel de Chimay ‘Exposition de l’art français sous Louis XIV et sous Louis XV’, lent by the Vicomte de Saint Georges, and again at the Petit Palais Musée Rétrospectif at the Exposition universelle of 1900. The Versailles example was installed at Versailles by Louis Philippe and was later shown at an Exposition rétrospectif in Paris in 1882.
Having seen the régulateurs exhibited in Paris, and responding to their popularity, the great ébénistes of the Belle Époque were inspired to remake the model. The first recorded examples were almost certainly made by Alfred Beurdeley: an ebony veneered clock appeared in the 16 May 1895 sale catalogue of Beurdeley's workshop as lot 38, as attributed to Caffiéri. Recent scholarship suggests that that clock was indeed the work of Beurdeley himself and was presumably displayed in the ébéniste's stand at the World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893 (C. Mestdagh, L'Ameublement d'art français: 1850-1900, Paris 2010, p. 182). An example by Beurdeley is recorded in the collection of Pierre Lécoules, and another with mounts variously signed ‘BY’ for Beurdeley, and later veneered in malachite, sold Christie’s, New York, 19-20 October 2011, lot 118.
Crafted by François Linke, the present régulateur is veneered in kingwood and tulipwood and thus true to the original in the Frick. It is possible that Linke bought the rights to reproduce it, and the models for the bronzes, from a sale of Beurdeley's inventory in 1895. Linke made the model under his title ‘Régulateur Louis XVI acajou’, Index Number 768. One with provenance from François Linke’s daughter at Quai Henri IV, Paris was sold A Private Collection Volume II, Sotheby’s, New York, 19 April 2007, lot 94 ($420,000). It was almost certainly made for one of Linke’s most important clients: Elias Meyer at 16 Grosvenor Square, London. The Meyer commission was placed in two considerable orders in 1909 and a series of captioned photographs of the room settings show it to be one of Linke’s most complete commissions – numbering dozens of pieces, from commodes, vitrines and tables to chandeliers and seat furniture. Elias Meyer died in 1925, and in November 1926 Linke repurchased most of the furniture including, it is thought, the régulateur. Linke is also known to have made a variation replacing the gilt-bronze cresting of Apollo’s chariot with a warlike cupid, ‘enfant geurier’ sculpted by Leon Messagé (see the photograph cliché of Index Number 768 reproduced here, and C. Payne, François Linke: The Belle Époque of French Furniture, Woodbridge, 2003, pl. 200 & pl. 201).