D'APRÈS UN MODÈLE DE LOUIS-SIMON BOIZOT (Paris,... Lot n° 50

IMPORTANT "AUX SPHINGES" HANGER Paris, Louis XVI period Gilt bronze, white Carrara marble, enamel and glass Inscriptions: A PARIS and G. MERLET on the dial H. 52 cm, W. 62 cm, D. 18 cm Gears and tiny chips in the marble This superb clock in white Carrara marble and chased bronze and gilded with mat gold and burnished gold has a damping in the attributes of Love, in the form of two doves in clouds. The movement rests on a cushion with trimmings supported by two sphinxes with outstretched wings. The frieze base of chased medallions is decorated with zodiacal signs, rosettes and scrolls. The whole rests on feet with lacquered patinas. The enamelled dial shows the hours in Roman numerals, as well as the minutes in increments of fifteen and the dates in Arabic numerals inscribed in foliated races. Our clock, an early testimony to Egyptomania in France during the reign of Louis XVI, is one of the most original creations of Parisian watchmaking in the second half of the 18th century. It is freely inspired by certain designs by ornamentalists, notably an engraving by Jean-François Forty (fig. 1) as well as a drawing by the architect François-Joseph Bélanger (1744-1818) which corresponds to a clock delivered in 1781 for the Salon of the Bagatelle Pavilion of the Count of Artois, a model of which is kept at the Wallace Collection in London (fig. 2). We can also mention several other models, sometimes close to the work of Pierre Gouthière or François Rémond, whose general design is close to that of the clock we present: the first clock of this type, the sphinxes sculpted in white Carrara marble, was probably in the 18th century in the Baudart collections of Saint James and is nowadays exhibited in the Louvre Museum in Paris (fig. 3) and a second one was offered in 1972 by Mr and Mrs Wrightsman to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (fig. 4).