Attribué à ANDRÉ-CHARLES BOULLE (1642 - 1732) Lot n° 55

REGULATOR OF THE "THREE PARQUES Paris, Louis XIV period, circa 1690 Oak frame; red coloured tortoiseshell; pewter; brass; ebony; pewter fillets; gilded bronzes; glass; enamel and metal H. 212.5 cm, W. 45 cm, D. 20.5 cm The regulator we are presenting has a narrow, slender, violin-like shape and has three parts inlaid with red-tinted tortoiseshell and brass on a pewter background decorated with fleurons, foliage and acanthus. A doucine base rests on a projecting plinth. The front is decorated with a large mantling motif in chased and gilded bronze. The central body with scrolls and ribs is richly decorated with gilded bronzes: a woman's mask nimbed with fleurons on the upper part, a bearded man's mask and scrolled palmettes on the lower part. In the center, the bezel of the balance wheel is encircled by a large bronze band. On the upper part, a curved rectangular "box" clock with three glazed sides and flanked by small gilt bronze fire pots. The dial is circular, in gilded copper with motifs of grotesque masks, foliage scrolls and fleurons. White enamel cartouches indicate the hours in Roman numerals and the minutes in Arabic numerals. A small white enamel sub-dial encroaching on the hours XI, XII and I, indicates the seconds. A music trophy flanked by leafy branches and an imposing bas-relief of the Three Fates complete its ornamentation. In addition to his "classical" cabinetry creations, which consisted mainly of chests of drawers, desks, cupboards and bookcases, Boulle designed extraordinary models of clocks and regulators, the latter generally described in the 18th century under the terms "pendules sur gaine", "pendules de parquet" or "horloges de parquet". Its earliest models date from the 1675s and featured a more "archaic" straight clock, with detached pilasters or corner columns, and a terraced domed upper part, all supported by sheaths without aprons. This last element appears in the years 1685.more elaborate with curvilinear pendulum with doucine and projecting plinths can be dated around 1690. In addition to the marquetry and bronzes characteristic of Boulle's work, the apron sheath on which our regulator rests also constitutes a direct reference to his production, evoking in particular the four apron sheaths illustrating the first plate of his famous collection entitled Nouveaux Desseins de Meubles et Ouvrages de Bronze et de Marqueterie, invented and engraved by André-Charles Boulle, published by Mariette in Paris, around 1710-1720 Slightly flared at the bottom, and decorated with a lush inlaid pewter background centered on an engraved brass flamed vase, the sheath encloses a barometer, whose scrolled arched dial adorns the apron, forming, to our knowledge, the only recorded example of a Boulle regulator with apron and barometer. The small sides, as well as the plinth on which it rests, have compartments veneered in ebony and edged with pewter fillets. A "Boullle clock, trimmed with gold ormolu, mounted on its Boulle sheath, trimmed with coloured bronze, the movement striking the hour, half-hour and quarters, with a barometer independent of the movement" was part of the collection of the painter and art dealer Pierre Le Brun (c. 1700 - 1771), sold in Paris under the direction of Merigot, on 19 June 1764 and following days, forming lot n°104 of the sale (fig.1). This is the only example we have been able to find of a Boulle "girdle clock" mentioned with an independent barometer in the various 18th century Paris sales catalogues, allowing us to hypothesize that it could be our regulator. A "first part" regulator similar to ours but without a barometer, decorated with the arms of Ralph (1638-1709), 1st Duke of Montagu, belongs to the collections of the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry at Boughton House, the "English Versailles" in Northamptonshire, England. With the exception of a figure of Time in the round crowning the ensemble, a different inlaid decoration on its sheath, and a later movement signed by William Allan, this regulator has the same inlaid decoration and bronzes, as well as the same bas-relief showing the Three Fates underlining the dial, as ours (fig. 2). Among the regulators with a bird-decorated middle part and an apron sheath similar to ours is the one without ornamental bronzes and with a movement signed by Pierre Duchesne, now kept at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris (fig. 3). Delivered for Louis XIV, it was inve