CIRCA 1750, THE PORCELAIN FIGURES ATTRIBUTED TO J.J. KÄNDLER, THE FLOWERS VINCENNES AND SEVRES PORCELAIN, MOST SOFT PASTE; THE CLOCK MOVEMENT BY EDME-JEAN CAUSARD, PARIS

THE MARQUISE DE LANGEAC APOLLO CLOCK

This magnificent clock, with its spectacular depiction of Apollo driving the Chariot of the Sun, borne aloft by billowing ormolu clouds, is one of the largest porcelain-mounted clocks known to survive from the 18th century and a true tour de force in its dramatic combination of Meissen porcelain figures by Kändler and dynamic, rococo gilt-bronzes.

THE HOTEL DE LANGEAC

It was recorded in the collection of Marie-Madeleine-Josèphe de Cusacque, marquise de Langeac, who was the mistress of one of the most important ministers under Louis XV, Louis Phélypeaux, comte de Saint-Florentin (1705-1777), who also inherited the title of duc de la Vrillière in 1770. He was appointed Minister for the Department of the Maison du Roi in 1749, remarkably holding the post until 1775. He also assumed the position of Foreign Minister following the duc de Choiseul’s dismissal in 1770, which he held until 1771.

Phélypeaux commissioned the influential neo-classical architect Jean-François-Thérèse Chalgrin (1739-1811) to design both his own hôtel on the rue Saint-Florentin (started in 1767 and perhaps made even more celebrated as the one of the main Paris residences of the Paris Rothschilds) and that for his mistress on the corner of the Champs Elysées and the rue de Berri, known as the hôtel Langeac. The elegant, restrained neo-classical façade concealed what must have been a spectacular interior. From the courtyard one entered an oval ‘antichambre’ or reception hall which led into a commanding oval salon whose ceiling was painted with the ‘Lever du Soleil sur le Char de l’Aurore’ by Jean-Simon Berthélemy (1743-1811), now no longer extant and known only through a sketch in the Musée de Beaux Arts de Quimper. It is tempting to think that the clock, which echoes the subject of Berthélemy’s painting, would have been placed in either of these impressive rooms to provide a visual counterpoint to the ceiling.

The Marquise de Langeac died in 1777 and the clock is clearly described in the inventory made of her effects in the same year:
Item une grande pendule le mouvement de Causard dans son cartel de bronze doré enrichi de quatre figures d’enfans, d’Apollon dans son char attelé de quatre chevaux et de la renommée, toute les figures en porcelaine de Saxe
The only discrepancy with the present clock is the lack of ‘quatres figures d’enfans’- one can see replaced ormolu platforms where these would have stood.

The clock was valued at 1500 livres , the most valuable piece in her collection, and was subsequently sold in the sale of her estate as lot 176, 2 April 1778, where it fetched the considerable sum of 1200 livres.

Although sadly demolished in 1842, the hôtel earned a further fascinating slice of history as the marquise’s son subsequently rented it to Thomas Jefferson in 1785, when serving as American Ambassador in Paris. Jefferson remained there until his return to America in 1789. He much admired Chalgrin’s refined neo-classical architecture and also the elegant à l’anglaise garden overlooking the Champs Elysées.

THE PORCELAIN

Johann Joachim Kändler’s chariot group of Phoebus Apollo driving a shell-form quadriga through the clouds is a rare example of the early version of this subject at Meissen. The god of the Sun is shown seated in his chariot, holding reins for his four horses in his left hand, his raised right hand holding a whip (here lacking). Porcelain clouds beneath the chariot and the horses are echoed by those in gilt bronze supporting the group. The movement of the group – speed insinuated by the arched necks and flying tails of the horses and the tension in the legs of the god – echo the ebullient rocaille form of the entire clock, gilt bronze clouds and sun rays supporting the clock movement set beneath a bower of porcelain flowers.

Twenty years later, Kändler, with assistance from M.V. Acier, adapted the model for use in a commission of 1772-1773 – a series of large-scale mythological porcelain groups made for the Russian imperial palace of Oranienbaum outside St Petersburg. Comprised of no fewer that forty allegorical and mythological sculptures, it featured large scale chariot groups of Mars, Jupiter, Luna, Saturn, among others, the seated figures facing to the side, the chariot borne by a pair of horses, eagles, stags or dragons, whichever animal is associated with the driver. See Dr. K. Berling, ed., Meissen China – An Illustrated History, Dover reprint, pp. 65-66, figs. 146, 147; Carl Albiker, Die Meissner Porzellantiere in 18. Jahrhundert, Berlin, 1959, p. 26 – fig. 249, illus.; and Ulrich Pietsch, ed., Meissen für die Zaren, Munich, 2004, pp. 103-115.

EDME-JEAN CAUSARD

Causard (circa 1720-1780) was one of the most significant horlogers of the Louis XV period. Early in his career he was an ouvrier libre and in 1753 was appointed Marchand Horloger Privilégié du Roi , opening a workshop on the rue Saint Honoré at the hôtel d‘Angleterre. He worked with some of the best bronziers of the time including Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain and the Osmonds, and his distinguished clients included Blondel de Gagny, the marquise de Massiac and Maréchal de Duras.