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拍品專文
JEAN-JOSEPH DE SAINT-GERMAIN
Elected as a maître-fondeur on 15 July 1748, Saint-Germain enjoyed the privilege of an ouvrier libre - enabling him to act both as an ébéniste and bronzier. He frequently supplied cases cast with animal forms and allegorical figures to the leading clockmakers of Paris, including the le Roy workshops, Etienne Lenoir and Jean-Philippe Gosselin. The quality of chasing and modelling in Saint-Germain's animal and foliate decorated cases also suggests close study of the natural world. A man of his times, Saint-Germain probably received a rudimentary education in rhetoric, the Classics and calculus in addition to a formal study of sculpture and draughtsmanship, reflecting the social and economic status of his family. Evidence for this early education is seen in the substantial library and finely organized cabinet of curiosities he amassed. This collection, in turn, sheds light upon his interests in the natural sciences, particularly botany and mineralogy, and the quality of his bronze casts (J.-D. Augarde, ‘Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain: Bronzier (1719-1791)’, L'Estampille/l'Objet d'Art, December, 1996, pp. 63-82).
A clock with a similar lion, without a musical box base, sold Christie’s, London, 17 June 1987, lot 39.
François Carte, listed at Nevers in 1771.
The clockmaker Francois Carte, ‘signed a pendule with a gilded music box’, possibly the present clock, which was sold in 1911. (Tardy, op cit)
THE MUSICAL CASE BY JACQUES DUBOIS
The case for the present musical box is by the ébéniste Jacques Dubois (1694-1763) who excelled in the realization of Vernis Martin pieces of the highest quality. Jacques Dubois was the half-brother of the great marchand-ébéniste Noel Gérard. Dubois worked as an ouvrier privilégié in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine before achieving his maîtrise in 1742 - fairly late in his life, which reinforces the thesis that he worked in the atelier of both his half-brother and, subsequently, his widow. Dubois was elected a juré of the guild in 1752.
The musical clock is from a series which received great acclaim in the Louis XV period. A similar model, with green horn was executed by Joseph de Saint Germain, father of the bronzier. Various types of veneers enriched these music boxes; from amaranthine to Boulle marquetry, tinted horn or Vernis Martin.
Elected as a maître-fondeur on 15 July 1748, Saint-Germain enjoyed the privilege of an ouvrier libre - enabling him to act both as an ébéniste and bronzier. He frequently supplied cases cast with animal forms and allegorical figures to the leading clockmakers of Paris, including the le Roy workshops, Etienne Lenoir and Jean-Philippe Gosselin. The quality of chasing and modelling in Saint-Germain's animal and foliate decorated cases also suggests close study of the natural world. A man of his times, Saint-Germain probably received a rudimentary education in rhetoric, the Classics and calculus in addition to a formal study of sculpture and draughtsmanship, reflecting the social and economic status of his family. Evidence for this early education is seen in the substantial library and finely organized cabinet of curiosities he amassed. This collection, in turn, sheds light upon his interests in the natural sciences, particularly botany and mineralogy, and the quality of his bronze casts (J.-D. Augarde, ‘Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain: Bronzier (1719-1791)’, L'Estampille/l'Objet d'Art, December, 1996, pp. 63-82).
A clock with a similar lion, without a musical box base, sold Christie’s, London, 17 June 1987, lot 39.
François Carte, listed at Nevers in 1771.
The clockmaker Francois Carte, ‘signed a pendule with a gilded music box’, possibly the present clock, which was sold in 1911. (Tardy, op cit)
THE MUSICAL CASE BY JACQUES DUBOIS
The case for the present musical box is by the ébéniste Jacques Dubois (1694-1763) who excelled in the realization of Vernis Martin pieces of the highest quality. Jacques Dubois was the half-brother of the great marchand-ébéniste Noel Gérard. Dubois worked as an ouvrier privilégié in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine before achieving his maîtrise in 1742 - fairly late in his life, which reinforces the thesis that he worked in the atelier of both his half-brother and, subsequently, his widow. Dubois was elected a juré of the guild in 1752.
The musical clock is from a series which received great acclaim in the Louis XV period. A similar model, with green horn was executed by Joseph de Saint Germain, father of the bronzier. Various types of veneers enriched these music boxes; from amaranthine to Boulle marquetry, tinted horn or Vernis Martin.