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Lot Essay
The design for this clock, attributed to Vion and composed by Duplessis, is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Interestingly, this ormolu case is attributed to the fondeur Lemoyne by J-D. Augarde in Les Ouvriers du Temps, Geneva, 1996, p. 262. Jean-Jacques Lemoyne was elected maître-fondeur-ciseleur on 28 March 1772. He lived in the rue Princesse and worked most notably for the comte de Montmorency-Laval. This model of clock was supplied frequently to the royal family. A virtually identical clock, also with movement by Robin, but with bleu turquin marble base, was delivered to the Comte de Provence at the Palais de Luxembourg circa 1782-3, and sold at Christie's, New York, 26 October 2001, lot 226. Augarde (op.cit.) states that Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette and Mesdames Victoire and Adelaide also owned similar clocks.
Another clock of this model, thought to have come from the French Royal Collections in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, with movement by Robin, is illustrated H. Ottomeyer/P. Pröschel et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich 1986, Vol I., p. 226, fig 4.1.2. A clock of this model but with white marble base, as on this lot, and movement by Montjoye, is in the Swedish Royal Collection at Drottningholm (B. von Malmborg, Slott Voch Herresdten i Sverige, De Kungliga Slotten, Malmo, 1971, pp. 160, 213).
Another clock of this model, thought to have come from the French Royal Collections in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, with movement by Robin, is illustrated H. Ottomeyer/P. Pröschel et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich 1986, Vol I., p. 226, fig 4.1.2. A clock of this model but with white marble base, as on this lot, and movement by Montjoye, is in the Swedish Royal Collection at Drottningholm (B. von Malmborg, Slott Voch Herresdten i Sverige, De Kungliga Slotten, Malmo, 1971, pp. 160, 213).