$4,250
Estimate: $6,000 - $8,000
English & Continental Furniture & Decorative Arts
Auction: May 20, 2014 11:00:00 AM EDT
The circular enameled dial with Roman hours signed DENIERE Ft DE BRONZES A PARIS, within beaded glazed door all set within an arched case mounted with bow and oak leaves to crest, the front corners with acanthus-cast mounts, supporting a Classical figure in mid-brown patina reading a book, raised on a rectangular stepped white marble and gilt bronze base with vitruvian spiral molded bronze edge, the face with guilloche frieze, raised on toupie feet, the brass movement stamped 792, DENIERE A PARIS, with circular impressed mark CAILLEAUX BREVETÉ, the pendulum stamped 792.
H: 21, W: 27, D: 11 in.Provenance: The collection of Dr. Alex Titomirov, Great Falls, Va.
Called a Pendule à la Geoffrin after Marie-Thérèse Rodet Geoffrin (1699-1777), owner of a prominent Paris salon and a celebrated patron of the arts, who may have designed the case, called à L'Emploi du Temps' in its time. This model was one of the most celebrated from the last quarter of the 18th century.
A model with a movement signed Ferdinand Berthoud and base stamped by the cabinetmaker Joseph Baumhauer is in the Wallace Collection, acquired by the 3rd Marquess of Hertford in 1802 (Peter Hughes, Wallace Collection Catalogue of Furniture, London 1996, Vol.I, cat. no.99). A similar version with a movement by Julien Leroy is in the Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor (Sir Geoffrey de Bellaigue, Waddesdon Manor Catalogue of Furniture and Gilt Bronzes, London 1974, vol. I no.17). An example with a movement by Leroy and the base stamped Joseph, was in the collection of Horace Walpole at Strawberry Hill (sold Christie’s London 23 June 1999, Lot 120).
Literature:
Pierre Kjellberg, Encyclopédie de la pendule franaise du Moyen Age au XXème siècle, Les éditions de l'Amateur, Paris 1997, p. 263.
Jean-Dominique Augarde, Les ouvriers du temps, Antiquorum Editions, Genève, 1996, p. 90.