A LOUIS XV MEISSEN PORCELAIN AND FRENCH FLORAL PORCELAIN-MOUNTED ORMOLU AND TOLE PEINTE MANTEL CLOCK

THE DIAL AND MOVEMENT SIGNED 'BENOIST GERARD A PARIS', THE PORCELAIN AND ORMOLU MID-18TH CENTURY, THE FLOWERS LARGELY 18TH CENTURY

Details

A LOUIS XV MEISSEN PORCELAIN AND FRENCH FLORAL PORCELAIN-MOUNTED ORMOLU AND TOLE PEINTE MANTEL CLOCK
THE DIAL AND MOVEMENT SIGNED 'BENOIST GERARD A PARIS', THE PORCELAIN AND ORMOLU MID-18TH CENTURY, THE FLOWERS LARGELY 18TH CENTURY
The circular enamel dial with Roman and Arabic chapters within a foliate and C-scroll case surmounted by a youth with fruit and set within a bocage with two pastoral figure groups, on a C-scroll and foliate base, the movement signed 'Benoist Gérard A Paris no-526', with twin spring barrels and strike on a bell, restorations to extremities of porcelain groups
21¼ in. (54 cm.) high

Provenance

Comtesse de Rochefort, Paris.
Anonymous sale, Sotheby's, Monaco, 18 June 1999, lot 73.

Lot Essay

During the 1740s through the end of the 1750s, these porcelain-mounted French clocks were popular throughout Europe. Their success was due primarily to the efforts of the Parisian marchands-merciers such as Lazare Duvaux, who ordered porcelain pieces to be fitted into the bronze mounts, most notably the figures and flowers from the Meissen and Vincennes factories.

The Vincennes factory was established in 1745 to compete with Meissen, and these flowers were one of their earliest and most successful productions. They remained a popular form of decoration, used in vases, clocks and most often in lighting fixtures. A similar clock at Waddesdon Manor is illustrated in G. de Bellaigue, The James A. De Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor: Furniture, Clocks and Bronzes, London, 1974, vol. I, p. 98.

BENOIST GÉRARD
Benoist II Gérard and his son, Jean-Benoist, collaborated under the same signature from 1743 until the former's death in 1758. By 1748 they were located on the rue Dauphine and in 1752 they moved to the quai Conti. Another, very similar clock also with movement by Gérard, was sold anonymously, Christie's, New York, 2 November 2000, lot 151.

END OF SALE

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