THE CASE BY JEAN GOYER, MID-18TH CENTURY, LATER ENGLISH TIMEPIECE MOVEMENT

The design for a clock of this model appears as no. 17 of the Livre de dessins in the Doucet Library where it is attributed to Antoine Foullet (1710-1775) and described as Cabinet d'Ebénisterie longue piece de table chinoise and costing 144 livres for the gilt version (H. Ottomeyer and P. Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. I, fig. 3.2.9). Foullet, who had an important stock of clock cases, also most likely had a commercial catalogue and it is possible that Jean Goyer had seen this. The present clock belongs to a group of similar japanned clock cases, often with ram's-head mounts but occasionally with espagnolettes, almost always with cases stamped by Jean Goyer (b. 1731), maître in 1760. One is illustrated in S. Eriksen, Early Neoclassicism in France, London, 1974, no. 107 and another was sold Sotheby's Monaco, 24 June, 2000, lot 118.