THE CASE ATTRIBUTED TO ANDRE-CHARLES BOULLE, AFTER A DESIGN BY GILLES-MARIE OPPENORDT, CIRCA 1715-25

Jacques Thuret, Horloger du Roi in 1694.

The name 'THURET' on the front of this clock refers to Jacques Thuret, clockmaker to Louis XIV, who from 1695 was responsible for maintaining all the clocks of the royal buildings in both Paris and Versailles. Thuret worked closely with the cabinetmaker André-Charles Boulle, who probably made the clock case. The clock's design is based on an existing drawing executed in circa 1715 by the architect and designer Gilles-Marie Oppenordt (1672-1742; the design preserved in the Cooper-Hewitt Museum, 1911-28-226, illustrated in H. Ottomeyer & P. Proschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. 1, p. 75, fig. 1.11.4). The design includes Thuret's signature and the same bracket form and decorative details, although the cockerels to the present clock are lacking and instead there is a cockerel with putto seated below the dial. A very closely-related clock also with cockerel heads to the shoulders and retaining its original movement signed by Thuret is in the Getty Museum (acc. 2015.60.2; ibid., fig. 1.11.5).