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Lot Essay
This impressive vase-form clock epitomizes the shift in Parisian taste towards Classical motifs and the zeal for Chinese celadon porcelain that defined the late eighteenth century. As the Louis XVI style took shape, the classical urn form gained great popularity as a decorative motif, appearing in bronze, stone and porcelain. The present clock likely formed the central component of a three-piece garniture assembled by a marchand-mercier with a keen awareness of developing Parisian fashion, which greatly prized ancien porcelain over newer export wares, and developed preference for celadon and monochrome Chinese glazes over the blue and white wares that had been so highly valued in the preceding centuries. The cockerel-head mounts on the sides hold symbolic meaning, with the rooster not only emblematic of France, but also of the virtue of watchfulness and traditionally associated with time, given its daily crowing at sunrise. As a combination of Chinese porcelain and French ormolu mounts, this clock is a true demonstration of the ingenuity and skill of late eighteenth-century craftsmen and the great tradition of Parisian excellence.
A few comparable instances of the model are known, the most similar being two examples also with molded celadon bodies, and each also with a socle foot instead of a flaring foot: the first was sold Christie's, London, July 6, 1961, lot 72; and the second, Christie's, New York, 21 May 1977, lot 576. Another example with the same mounts as the present clock was sold from the estate of M. Marquis; Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 10 February 1890, lot 79, and was subsequently recorded in 1907 in the catalogue of the Rodolphe Kann Collection, cat. no. 183, though its porcelain body was decorated with a polychrome bird-and-flower scene. An example with a crackle-glazed body from the Collection of Karl Lagerfeld, and formerly, by repute, in the Collection of Sophia Charlotte, Baroness Howe (1762-1835), was sold Christie's, Monaco, 28 April 2000, lot 56, though its cover is composed of two domed porcelain sections culminating in an ormolu celestial globe as a finial, the mounts joining the rooster heads cast with bands of linked circles, and the plinth base under its spreading foot is decorated with Greek-key.
A few comparable instances of the model are known, the most similar being two examples also with molded celadon bodies, and each also with a socle foot instead of a flaring foot: the first was sold Christie's, London, July 6, 1961, lot 72; and the second, Christie's, New York, 21 May 1977, lot 576. Another example with the same mounts as the present clock was sold from the estate of M. Marquis; Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 10 February 1890, lot 79, and was subsequently recorded in 1907 in the catalogue of the Rodolphe Kann Collection, cat. no. 183, though its porcelain body was decorated with a polychrome bird-and-flower scene. An example with a crackle-glazed body from the Collection of Karl Lagerfeld, and formerly, by repute, in the Collection of Sophia Charlotte, Baroness Howe (1762-1835), was sold Christie's, Monaco, 28 April 2000, lot 56, though its cover is composed of two domed porcelain sections culminating in an ormolu celestial globe as a finial, the mounts joining the rooster heads cast with bands of linked circles, and the plinth base under its spreading foot is decorated with Greek-key.