THE MOVEMENT BY IVERNOIS, LAST QUARTER 18TH CENTURY

This clock is closely related to the refined goût Grec designs of dessinateur and bronzier Jean-Louis Prieur (1732-95). Prieur’s designs were in many cases proposals submitted for a specific intent within a defined commission, as well as being widely disseminated through several editions of engraved plates from the late 1760s onwards. The design of this clock is closely related to a working drawing by Prieur dated 1766 for a console table, clock, and pair of candelabra (H. Ottomeyer and P. Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen. Die Bronzearbeiten des Spätbarock und Klassizismus, 1986, p. 167, fig. 3.4.4); the Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon houses a clock of the same form as the design and the present lot, but without enamelling to the urn and column (ibid, fig. 3.4.5).

Both the aforementioned design and the Gulbenkian clock appear to be ‘simplified’ versions of a clock and design by Prieur which features a figure of Urania leaning on a globe and pointing to an urn housing a clock (rather than supporting the urn) and flanked by putti. Both clock and design are now in the Warsaw National Museum, suggesting that the design was part of a celebrated commission for Stanislaus August, the King of Poland (1764-98) (both clock and drawing illustrated ibid, figs. 3.4.1 and 3.4.2). Upon his election to the throne in 1764, Stanislaus August initiated an extensive programme of renovation and modernisation at the royal palace in Warsaw. In collaboration with the French architect Victor Louis and the influential amateur Madame Geoffrin (see footnote to lot 14), he furnished the palace in the latest goût Grec style. Acquisitions were made in Paris in 1764 by the King's agent Casimir Czempinski, who was directed to purchase only the most fashionable items. Czempinski conscientiously reported to the King that ‘dans tous les achats que je fais, je donne la préferènce au bel antique, au Grec dessin’ (‘in all the purchases I make, I give preference to beautiful antiques, to Greek drawing’, S. Lorentz, 'Victor Louis et Varsovie’, Revue Historique de Bordeaux et du departement de la Gironde, January-March 1958, p. 39). Prieur was among the celebrated artisans contracted for the scheme, who also included the goldsmith François-Thomas Germain, the painter Jean Pillement and Philippe Caffieri. Prieur and Caffieri seem to have received the largest share of the commission for ornamental bronzes, including clocks, chenets, barometers and wall-lights, which were delivered between 1766 and the early 1770s.

Another example of this model can be found in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris where the design of the figures has been attributed to Clodion and described as representing Time and Love (Tardy, French Clocks The World Over. 5th Ed., Part Two From Louis XVI style to Louis XVIII-Charles X period, Paris, 1981, p. 91; and also E. Niehüser, French Bronze Clocks, 1700-1830, Atglen, 1999, p. 261, fig. 1295). An example of this model (again, without enamelling to the urn and column) was sold Christie’s, New York, 23 October 2018, lot 256 ($57,500). Further clocks of this model include: one formerly in the collection of Baron Eric von Goldschmidt-Rothschild, sold Hermann Ball & Paul Graupe, Berlin, 14 March 1933, lot 38; and one formerly in the Demachy Collection, sold Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 24 May 1912, lot 53.