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Lot Essay
This fine régulateur de parquet and its companion barometer are based upon the celebrated model attributed to Jean-Henri Riesener, executed in 1785 and now in the Musée de Louvre (cat. C.Dr., No. 185). Today this model is one of the most famous régulateur clocks from French Royal ancien régime. Its enduring popularity owes much to it being a favored object of Empress Eugénie, during the Second Empire embarked on an ambitious refurbishment campaign of her apartments at the Tuileries, creating rooms which evoked the final flourishing of the Ancien Régime – the Louis XVI period – and paired furniture and works of art from the 18th century with fine 19th century reproductions. As part of this campaign, Eugénie commissioned the celebrated 19th century cabinetmaker Grohé to create a pendant barometer to Riesener’s longcase clock, which is illustrated in P. Verlet, Les bronzes dorés français du XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 1987, p. 384, fig. 394.
Following defeat in the Franco-Prussian war and Napoleon III’s abdication, the original régulateur together with Grohé's barometer were transferred to the Mobilier National for display at the Louvre. It is here that they were admired by ébénistes who would have sought permission to replicate the model, perhaps utilising Grohé’s bronze master models and drawings. The finest reproductions of the model dating to the last quarter of the 19th century are recorded by Henry Dasson, Alfred Beurdeley, Lexcellent and Paul Sormani - and are not to be confused with the proliferation of later and vastly inferior copies. A single régulateur by Henry Dasson is illustrated in C. Mestdagh, L’ameublement d’art français 1850-1900, Paris, 2010, p. 192, fig. 220, and another by Dasson sold from a distinguished American collection, Christie’s London, 28 October 2014, lot 14 (£62,500).
A pair - the régulateur with its companion barometer – are exceedingly rare. The only other pair recorded are by Henry Dasson and sold Christie’s, New York, 24 April 2002, lot 66.
Following defeat in the Franco-Prussian war and Napoleon III’s abdication, the original régulateur together with Grohé's barometer were transferred to the Mobilier National for display at the Louvre. It is here that they were admired by ébénistes who would have sought permission to replicate the model, perhaps utilising Grohé’s bronze master models and drawings. The finest reproductions of the model dating to the last quarter of the 19th century are recorded by Henry Dasson, Alfred Beurdeley, Lexcellent and Paul Sormani - and are not to be confused with the proliferation of later and vastly inferior copies. A single régulateur by Henry Dasson is illustrated in C. Mestdagh, L’ameublement d’art français 1850-1900, Paris, 2010, p. 192, fig. 220, and another by Dasson sold from a distinguished American collection, Christie’s London, 28 October 2014, lot 14 (£62,500).
A pair - the régulateur with its companion barometer – are exceedingly rare. The only other pair recorded are by Henry Dasson and sold Christie’s, New York, 24 April 2002, lot 66.