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Lot Essay
Michel Poisson became maître fondeur-doreur in 1778 while living in the rue des Marmousets and took over the workshop of the clockmaker Mathieu in the rue des Grands Augustins upon the latter's bankruptcy in 1781.
Jean-Gabriel Imbert (d. 1795), maître in 1776, had his workshop in the Carrefour de la Roquette in 1767, in the rue Planche-Mibray in 1781, in the rue des Arcis in 1784 and in the rue de Monceau in 1795. Initially working in collaboration with his brother-in-law, J.C. Olin, Imbert subsequently supplied movements for cases by Goyer, Bonnet, Vion, Duhamel and Osmond and counted the marquis de Brunoy and the duc des Deux Ponts amongst his principal patrons.
This mantel clock, emblematic of 'l'Amour vainqeur du Temps', corresponds directly with the unsigned design in the Bibliothèque de l'Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris (J.-D. Augarde, Les Ouvriers du Temps, Geneva, 1996, p. 138, fig. 98), which can, on the basis of this clock, be confidently attributed to Poisson. A further identical clock, also signed Poisson and with movement by Imbert, is illustrated by P. Verlet, Les Bronzes Dorés Franais du XVIIIe Siècle, Cahors, 1987, p. 259, fig. 287 and 288, whilst a further identical clock was sold anonymously at Piasa, Paris, 26 March 1997, lot 139.
Jean-Gabriel Imbert (d. 1795), maître in 1776, had his workshop in the Carrefour de la Roquette in 1767, in the rue Planche-Mibray in 1781, in the rue des Arcis in 1784 and in the rue de Monceau in 1795. Initially working in collaboration with his brother-in-law, J.C. Olin, Imbert subsequently supplied movements for cases by Goyer, Bonnet, Vion, Duhamel and Osmond and counted the marquis de Brunoy and the duc des Deux Ponts amongst his principal patrons.
This mantel clock, emblematic of 'l'Amour vainqeur du Temps', corresponds directly with the unsigned design in the Bibliothèque de l'Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris (J.-D. Augarde, Les Ouvriers du Temps, Geneva, 1996, p. 138, fig. 98), which can, on the basis of this clock, be confidently attributed to Poisson. A further identical clock, also signed Poisson and with movement by Imbert, is illustrated by P. Verlet, Les Bronzes Dorés Franais du XVIIIe Siècle, Cahors, 1987, p. 259, fig. 287 and 288, whilst a further identical clock was sold anonymously at Piasa, Paris, 26 March 1997, lot 139.