LATE 19TH CENTURY

The celebrated mantle clock is known as ‘pendule à la Geoffrin’ as the model was first made for Madame Geoffrin (d. 1777) who ran an important Salon. The reading figure was thought to represent her in the pose of a student as painted by Nattier in 1738 and probably sculpted by Laurent Guiard in 1754. Various examples were produced over the next thirty years, one in the Wallace Collection in London (F267).