A NAPOLEON III WHITE MARBLE, ORMOLU AND BRONZE MANTEL CLOCK with circular glazed enamel dial numbered with Roman numerals and surmounted by a pair of classical muses flanking an altar, one holding a lyre and with Hymen's torch beside her, the other wearing a crown and holding a laurel swag, between an urn base, with inscription ILIADE ÉNEIDE JERUSALEM DÉLIVRÉE, the breakfront plinth richly mounted with scrolling foliage swags and mille-raies, with a scrolled volute to each end, upon a spreading entrelac and laurel-cast base and gadrooned bun feet, the marble inscribed GEORGE, the movement stamped S4S and S425 (the vase body missing), 19th Century

THE PROPERTY OF A LADY

Details

A NAPOLEON III WHITE MARBLE, ORMOLU AND BRONZE MANTEL CLOCK with circular glazed enamel dial numbered with Roman numerals and surmounted by a pair of classical muses flanking an altar, one holding a lyre and with Hymen's torch beside her, the other wearing a crown and holding a laurel swag, between an urn base, with inscription ILIADE ÉNEIDE JERUSALEM DÉLIVRÉE, the breakfront plinth richly mounted with scrolling foliage swags and mille-raies, with a scrolled volute to each end, upon a spreading entrelac and laurel-cast base and gadrooned bun feet, the marble inscribed GEORGE, the movement stamped S4S and S425 (the vase body missing), 19th Century
28½in. (72.5cm.) wide; 20½in. (52cm.) high; 9in. (23cm.) deep

Lot Essay

This Napoleon III mantel clock is conceived in the Louis XVI 'antique' manner, with the muses of epic and love poetry reclining on a flower-festooned and laurel-wreathed plinth beside a sacred altar-supported urn (now missing).

The book titles refer to the writings of Homer, Virgil and Tasso.

This model, with a movement by Masson, Paris (fl. 1830-60), is illustrated Tardy, La Pendule Française, part 2, p. 468

;

View all

24 Mar Article

Henri Matisse’s lyrical bronze Reclining Nude II: ‘I sculpted as a painter, not as a sculptor’

24 Mar Video

After Impressionism: ‘Artists were not content with the art of the past or the art of the present’

More from The 19th Century

View All