A LOUIS XV ORMOLU AND EBONY MUSICAL CLOCK 'L'ALLÉGORIE DE LA BATAILLE DE FONTENOY' OR 'LA PAIX'

The present clock is allegorical of the French army’s victory in the battle of Fontenoy and also celebrates the Treaty of Paris of 1763, signed by Louis XV at Fontainebleau, which formally ended the Seven Years’ War.

The Battle of Fontenoy took place on 11 May 1745 and was considered one of the most important in the War of the Austrian Succession. The battle was fought between the forces of the Pragmatic Allies under the command of the Duke of Cumberland and a French army under Maurice de Saxe who was King Louis XV’s commander of the forces in the Low Countries. His successes in this campaign meant that the Saxon-born maréchal, was lauded in his adopted country of France. By tradition, this clock was gifted to him by King Louis XV. However, the maréchal’s death pre-dates the clock.

It is possible that following the signing of the Treaty of Paris on 3 November 1762, that this clock was commissioned as a commemorative work when the treaty was ratified on 10 February 1763. (see J-D. Augarde, Jean-Joseph de Saint Germain, Bronzier (1719-1791), inédit sur sa vie et son oeuvre", L'Estampille L'Objet d'Art, Décembre 1996, pp. 80-82).

The clock’s unusual glass dial showcases the clockmaker’s movement which has been engraved and skeletonised for maximum visual effect. In 1755 clockmaker, Samuel Dupont presented a dial of this type to the Academie des Sciences. Very few of these clock dials now remain. The musical movement is signed by Pierre Antoine Regnault, maître horloger in 1754, and horloger de Sa Majesté Impériale l'Empereur François Ier d'Autriche (1768-1835), in 1786.

The ormolu case is attributed to Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain (1719 - 1791). Elected as a maître fondeur en terre et en sable on 15 July 1748, Saint-Germain enjoyed the privilege of an ouvrier libre - enabling him to act both as an ébéniste and bronzier. He frequently supplied cases cast with allegorical figures to the leading clockmakers of Paris, including the le Roy workshops, Etienne Lenoir and Jean-Philippe Gosselin.

The base is related to the oeuvre of Philippe-Claude Montigny, the son of Louis Montigny, himself an ébéniste and artisan privilégié, who took over his father's workshop in the Cour de la Juiverie after receiving his maîtrise in 1766.

Montigny was one of the first ébénistes for adopting the so-called goût grec style seen in the present clock, the early phase of French neo-classicism, which developed fully in the late 1750s / early 1760s. He is well-known for his 'bureaux à la Grecque' which can be divided into four groups, identified by the motif decorating the frieze, with those with Vitruvian scrolls forming one group, those decorated with a Greek key pattern another, those with a flowered entrelac frieze a third group and those with a plain frieze the fourth. The floral entrelac frieze on the present clock closely relates to a frieze found on a bureau plat stamped Montigny in the Woburn Abbey Collection (S. Eriksen, Early neo-classicism in France, London 1974, fig.124). Montigny also made several smaller objects, including encriers. A clock with a similar frieze, stamped Montigny was sold, Sotheby’s Parke Bernet, 8 July 1983, Lot 84. The contrast of the ormolu mounts against a rich ebony background is also typical of his work.