BREGUET, PARIS, NO. 242, THE CASE BY BAVOZET FRERE ET SOEUR, THE MOVEMENT BY LENOIR, CIRCA 1835

A fine manifestation of the neo-gothic taste that pervaded French art in the early 19th century, this clock reproduces in exacting detail the South façade of the Cathedral in Rouen. The case maker, Bavozet Frère et Sœur, produced a series of clocks that replicated to scale the facades of important gothic churches in France, including the Cathedrals of Reims, Paris, Rennes and Rouen, in a reflection of the revived interest in the Middle Ages that manifest itself across the arts in architecture, painting, drawing, sculpture and objects from the mid-1820s. An identical clock is illustrated in P. Kjellberg, Encyclopédie de La Pendule française du Moyen Age au XXe siècle, Paris, 1997, p. 452, fig B. The present clock is listed in the ledgers of Bréguet, inv. no. 242 as being sold in 1835 to a Mr. Irby, which could possibly correspond to the Irby family, holding the title Baron Boston.