a french gilt-brass and five enamel panel mounted striking carriage clock

NO 775. CIRCA 1870

Details
a french gilt-brass and five enamel panel mounted striking carriage clock
no 775. circa 1870
The gorge case with Sèvres style Watteauesque painted panels to sides, rear door and top, the side panels depicting couples and young archers in woodland scenes, the top panel showing a swain tying a flower in his lover's hair, the rear panel portraying a riverscape, each within gilt-heightened borders, the dial with individual Roman chapters, a still life with fruit below and birds to the centre, the silvered lever platform with bimetallic balance, strike on bell to the backplate numbered 775
5¾in. (14.5cm.) high
Literature
Illustrated Derek Roberts (op. cit.) p.191, fig.11-25.

Lot Essay

The five panel carriage clock, whether in enamel or porcelain, may be considered the ne plus ultra of the type, allowing as it does the decoration to be seen from every viewpoint. The additional panels to top and rear would have made them extremely expensive and as such relatively few examples occur. At first glance, the panels of the present clock might be mistaken for Paris porcelain as decoration of this kind, with distinctive sky blue ground and romantic scenes, is more usually found in that medium (see for example lots 60, 97 and 131) and unusual on enamel (see footnote to lot 16). It is quite likely that the present panels were made in Limoges, where indeed many Sèvres style porcelain panels were produced also as most porcelain factories had left Paris by the latter part of the 19th century.

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