FRANCE, seconde moitié du XVIIIème siècle Lot n° 42

Clock with the Allegory of Prudence. In gilded bronze, with a young draped woman, looking at herself in a mirror and holding a snake, wrapped around her wrist, leaning against the cylinder containing the movement, and sitting on a rectangular molded base, with a bulging central projection, adorned with a lion's nose holding a garland of laurels in its mouth. Base in brown-black wood, following the shape, applied with a frieze of gilt bronze flowered posts, resting on feet in palets. White enamelled dial, signed "LEPAUTE H[orlo]ger du Roi", indexes with Roman numerals for the hours, and dots and Arabic numerals for the minutes, in black. Mechanical movement with key winding, wire suspension. Later stamp. Louis XVI period. The feet of the base are later; one is missing. H. : 32 cm - W. : 28.5 cm - D. : 14 cm. Heavy wear to the gilding; chips to the dial; glass of the bezel and tip of the large hand missing; cracks, chips and chips to the base. The signature on the dial of this clock corresponds to the existing company between Jean-André LEPAUTE (1720-1789) and his younger brother Jean-Baptiste LEPAUTE (1727-1802). It was used from 1758 to 1792, even after the death of the elder brother. A similar model is reproduced in the Encyclopédie de la pendule française by Pierre KJELLBERG, p. 252, letter B and in La pendule française by TARDY, 2nd part, p. 117 (Louvre [Inv. No 0A6625]). Provenance : Sale Me Alain Lemée, Hôtel Drouot, room 10, 6-7 March 1967, lot 129.