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Lot Essay
The subject of this clock is adapted from Jacques-Louis David's celebrated painting of the Oath of the Horatii, dated 1784. The three brothers face their father and vow mutual fidelity at the altar, before going off to fight the Curatii to determine the supremacy of either Rome or Alba. Two of the Horatii and the three Curatii were killed.
A related example was accquired by George, Prince of Wales, in 1809 for the Large Crimson Drawing Room at Carlton House; it remains in the Royal collection at Buckingham Palace and is illustrated in J. Harris et al., Buckingham Palace and its Treasures, New York, 1968, p. 168. A second model of this clock, apparently identical to the one at Buckingham palace, is in the Munich Residenz (illustrated H. Ottomeyer & P. Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich 1986, p. 367, fig. 5.13.5), while a third example is in the anteroom of Prince Frederik Adolf's apartments in the Royal Palace, Stockholm (illustrated H. Groth, Neoclassicism in the North, London, 1990, p. 23 fig. 7).
A related example was accquired by George, Prince of Wales, in 1809 for the Large Crimson Drawing Room at Carlton House; it remains in the Royal collection at Buckingham Palace and is illustrated in J. Harris et al., Buckingham Palace and its Treasures, New York, 1968, p. 168. A second model of this clock, apparently identical to the one at Buckingham palace, is in the Munich Residenz (illustrated H. Ottomeyer & P. Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich 1986, p. 367, fig. 5.13.5), while a third example is in the anteroom of Prince Frederik Adolf's apartments in the Royal Palace, Stockholm (illustrated H. Groth, Neoclassicism in the North, London, 1990, p. 23 fig. 7).