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拍品專文
Formed by a passionate and discerning collector, this remarkable group celebrates the enduring splendour of pietra dura and the virtuoso craftsmanship of Europe’s great hardstone traditions. Spanning Florence, Prague and Paris, the following lots bring together works of exceptional rarity and refinement, united by their sumptuous materials and technical brilliance.
The present clock can be securely attributed to the Grand-Ducal workshops of the Galleria dei Lavori, Florence, and belongs to a rare and highly distinguished group of monumental night clocks produced for the Medici court around 1700–1705. The movement is signed by Francesco Papillion, a little-documented clockmaker who registered as a master in Florence in 1705 and whose signature also appears on an alarm clock in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, a double-case pocket watch in the Ilbert Collection and a closely related night clock in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. The exceptional quality of the present clock strongly suggests that Papillion was working in conjunction with the Galleria dei Lavori, supplying movements for some of its most prestigious commissions.
The clock shares numerous characteristics with a small corpus of grand-ducal clocks executed under Cosimo III de’ Medici. These include the celebrated example formerly in the Gilbert Collection, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (inv. no. 97.DB.37) with ebony, gilt-bronze and pietre dure decoration; a clock in the Bulgari Collection, Rome; and a further example in the Residenz, Munich, made for Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici, Electress Palatine, and datable to circa 1705. All display closely related architectural cases enriched with pietre dure panels, hardstone columns and gilt-bronze mounts attributed to Giovanni Battista Foggini, who is also believed to have provided the designs, while the cabinet work is associated with the Dutch-born ebenista Leonardo van der Vinne. The present clock, with its comparable use of pietre dure decoration, onyx columns and finely chased gilt-bronze ornament, clearly belongs to this distinguished group.
Archival documents preserved in the Archivio di Stato, Florence (Guardaroba 1123, cc. 5r, 6r, 6v and 8v), record a series of payments made during 1704 to Leonardo van der Vinne for ebony and granatiglia destined “per l’Oriuolo che va facendo” (“for the clock that is being made”), together with payments to the carver Alessandro Patriarchi for ebony brackets and cartouches intended for the same clock. Although the documents do not permit a definitive identification, they may plausibly relate to the present work or one of its close counterparts. Significantly, these records pre-date by only a year Papillion’s registration as a master clockmaker in Florence, providing compelling documentary evidence for the production of such exceptional clocks within the Galleria dei Lavori at precisely the period to which the present clock may be assigned.
The present clock can be securely attributed to the Grand-Ducal workshops of the Galleria dei Lavori, Florence, and belongs to a rare and highly distinguished group of monumental night clocks produced for the Medici court around 1700–1705. The movement is signed by Francesco Papillion, a little-documented clockmaker who registered as a master in Florence in 1705 and whose signature also appears on an alarm clock in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, a double-case pocket watch in the Ilbert Collection and a closely related night clock in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. The exceptional quality of the present clock strongly suggests that Papillion was working in conjunction with the Galleria dei Lavori, supplying movements for some of its most prestigious commissions.
The clock shares numerous characteristics with a small corpus of grand-ducal clocks executed under Cosimo III de’ Medici. These include the celebrated example formerly in the Gilbert Collection, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (inv. no. 97.DB.37) with ebony, gilt-bronze and pietre dure decoration; a clock in the Bulgari Collection, Rome; and a further example in the Residenz, Munich, made for Anna Maria Luisa de’ Medici, Electress Palatine, and datable to circa 1705. All display closely related architectural cases enriched with pietre dure panels, hardstone columns and gilt-bronze mounts attributed to Giovanni Battista Foggini, who is also believed to have provided the designs, while the cabinet work is associated with the Dutch-born ebenista Leonardo van der Vinne. The present clock, with its comparable use of pietre dure decoration, onyx columns and finely chased gilt-bronze ornament, clearly belongs to this distinguished group.
Archival documents preserved in the Archivio di Stato, Florence (Guardaroba 1123, cc. 5r, 6r, 6v and 8v), record a series of payments made during 1704 to Leonardo van der Vinne for ebony and granatiglia destined “per l’Oriuolo che va facendo” (“for the clock that is being made”), together with payments to the carver Alessandro Patriarchi for ebony brackets and cartouches intended for the same clock. Although the documents do not permit a definitive identification, they may plausibly relate to the present work or one of its close counterparts. Significantly, these records pre-date by only a year Papillion’s registration as a master clockmaker in Florence, providing compelling documentary evidence for the production of such exceptional clocks within the Galleria dei Lavori at precisely the period to which the present clock may be assigned.