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Lot Essay
It is possible that the case may have been furnished by the bronzier Marcel-François Noël, as a similar clock is recorded in a 1778 inventory of his workshop. A clock of the same model, with movement by Pierre-Michel Barancourt (who is known to have supplied movements to Noël) is illustrated in D. Augarde, Les Ouvriers du Temps, Geneva, 1996, p. 187, fig. 149. Noël, who achieved his maîtrise in 1766, was recorded variously at the rue Jean-Robert and the rue Neuve St-Martin. He numbered Louis XVI's brother, the comte d'Artois among his clients, and supplied 'beaux bronzes' to the latter's Parisian residence the palais du Temple in 1778.
This same model, with a vine-wreathed drum base features on a clock inscribed by the Parisian clockmaker Joseph Léonard Roque, who established his workshops 'Au Vieux Louvre' in 1772, where he was able to practice his trade two years before achieving his maîtrise in 1774 (offered from the estate of Peter Sharp, Sotheby's New York, 13 January 1994, lot 30). Another urn clock by Roque, with similarly jewelled chapters, was offered Sotheby's, London, 10 July 1981, lot 170.
This same model, with a vine-wreathed drum base features on a clock inscribed by the Parisian clockmaker Joseph Léonard Roque, who established his workshops 'Au Vieux Louvre' in 1772, where he was able to practice his trade two years before achieving his maîtrise in 1774 (offered from the estate of Peter Sharp, Sotheby's New York, 13 January 1994, lot 30). Another urn clock by Roque, with similarly jewelled chapters, was offered Sotheby's, London, 10 July 1981, lot 170.