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Lot Essay
The celebrated mantle clock is known as ‘pendule à la Geoffrin’ as the model was first made for Madame Geoffrin (d. 1777) who ran an important Salon. The reading figure was thought to represent her in the pose of a student as painted by Nattier in 1738 and probably sculpted by Laurent Guiard in 1754. Various examples were produced over the next thirty years, one in the Wallace Collection in London (F267), and it is becoming of Dasson’s talent to so successfully revive the model in the 1880s.
Henry Dasson (d. 1896) is recorded as having worked in Paris at 106, rue Vieille-du-Temple. Dasson specialized in reproducing a wide range of furniture and objets d'art of high quality in the style of Louis XIV, XV and XVI, often directly copying known pieces. He purchased the firm of the ébéniste Charles Winckelsen upon his death in 1870, and produced an impressive range of pieces for the Paris Expositions from 1878 until 1895. The firm's output was distinguished particularly by the fine quality of its ormolu mounts. The business continued until 1894, when a sale of remaining stock was held (see D. Ledoux-Lebard, Le Mobilier Français du XIX Siècle, Paris, 1984, pp. 146-151).
Henry Dasson (d. 1896) is recorded as having worked in Paris at 106, rue Vieille-du-Temple. Dasson specialized in reproducing a wide range of furniture and objets d'art of high quality in the style of Louis XIV, XV and XVI, often directly copying known pieces. He purchased the firm of the ébéniste Charles Winckelsen upon his death in 1870, and produced an impressive range of pieces for the Paris Expositions from 1878 until 1895. The firm's output was distinguished particularly by the fine quality of its ormolu mounts. The business continued until 1894, when a sale of remaining stock was held (see D. Ledoux-Lebard, Le Mobilier Français du XIX Siècle, Paris, 1984, pp. 146-151).