.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Armingaud L'ain, recorded at rue Meslay, Paris, and boulevard de la Porte Saint Martin, 1806-13.
Porcelain cases for lyre-shaped clocks were first produced at the Svres Manufactory in 1785. Made in turquoise blue, green, pink and bleu nouveau, the latter was the most popular ground color. The clockmaker D.D. Kinable was the largest buyer of such cases from the factory, buying thirteen between 1795 and 1807. An example in bleu nouveau, delivered on approval to George IV at Carlton House on 12 October 1828 by the Paris dealer Lafontaine and subsequently purchased by the King, was exhibited at the Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London, 'Svres Porcelain from the Royal Collection', 1979-1980, Exhibition Catalogue, pp. 79-80, no. 73. Another, now in the Louvre (inv. O.A.R.483 - P. Verlet, Les Bronzes Dors Franais du XVIIIe sicle, 1987, p. 41, ill. 32), the dial of which is signed Coteau 1787, was originally at Versailles, where it is recorded in the Salon des Jeux: Une pendule de chemine en porcelaine de Svres fond bleu cadran 4 aiguilles, orne de rangs de perles et guirlandes de fleurs, le haut termin par un soleil sous verre de 22 pouces de haut. It was valued at 1600 livres.
An unattributed drawing for a lyre-form clock is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and illustrated in M. L. Myers, French Architectural and Ornamental Drawings of the Eighteenth Century, New York, 1992, p. 204, no. 121 (60.692.8).
Porcelain cases for lyre-shaped clocks were first produced at the Svres Manufactory in 1785. Made in turquoise blue, green, pink and bleu nouveau, the latter was the most popular ground color. The clockmaker D.D. Kinable was the largest buyer of such cases from the factory, buying thirteen between 1795 and 1807. An example in bleu nouveau, delivered on approval to George IV at Carlton House on 12 October 1828 by the Paris dealer Lafontaine and subsequently purchased by the King, was exhibited at the Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London, 'Svres Porcelain from the Royal Collection', 1979-1980, Exhibition Catalogue, pp. 79-80, no. 73. Another, now in the Louvre (inv. O.A.R.483 - P. Verlet, Les Bronzes Dors Franais du XVIIIe sicle, 1987, p. 41, ill. 32), the dial of which is signed Coteau 1787, was originally at Versailles, where it is recorded in the Salon des Jeux: Une pendule de chemine en porcelaine de Svres fond bleu cadran 4 aiguilles, orne de rangs de perles et guirlandes de fleurs, le haut termin par un soleil sous verre de 22 pouces de haut. It was valued at 1600 livres.
An unattributed drawing for a lyre-form clock is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and illustrated in M. L. Myers, French Architectural and Ornamental Drawings of the Eighteenth Century, New York, 1992, p. 204, no. 121 (60.692.8).