Lot 342
£1,638
Auction: Day 2
the white enamel dial with black Arabic numerals and Arabic quarter markers, signed in puce ‘Lepine, A Paris’, the white marble pendule d’officer style case with beaded door with rose branch bow swag below, surmounted by a figure of winged Cupid descending on billowing clouds to greet a figure of Venus with two doves between them, mounted on a white marble inverted breakfront plinth base with acanthus moulding, the front with a classical frieze of putti, on front toupie feet flanked by two pairs of column base feet, the twin barrel movement with silk suspended pendulum and outside countwheel, striking on a bell, the backplate signed ‘Delaruelle AParis’
32cm wide, 39cm high, 14cm deep
There is a limited corpus of known Lepine clocks from the same period with a similar composition to the present clock, all featuring a pair of gilt bronze figures representing allegories of love flanking the case incorporating doves. A similar model, signed Lépine, can be seen in the collection of the Residenzmuseum, Munich, another housed in identical case can also be found at Château de Fontainebleau [See Hans Ottomeyer and Peter Pröschel, “Vergoldete Bronzen”, 1986, p. 248, pl. 4.6.13]. That model also features an allegory of Cupid, this time in the guise of a putti, descending from the opposite side. The modelling and chasing of the clouds is nearly identical to the present clock and the framing of the figures around the case is similar. Another similar model, signed Lépine, resides in the Collection of the Louvre Museum, Paris, and came from the collection of Queen Marie-Antoinette [See P. Kjellberg, La pendule française du Moyen-Age au XXe siècle, Les Éditions de l’Amateur, 1997, p.251 (pendule C) et 246 (pendule A), Archives nationales O13510)]. That model represents the “Return of Love" and shows figures of a winged putti offering a dove to a young maiden arranged in a similar posture around the clock. Both of those signed Lepine examples have very similar dials to the present clock, with the style of both the Arabic numerals and the signature near identical.
Jean-Antoine Lépine (1720-1814), was one of the most important Parisian clockmakers of the second part of the 18th century. He was appointed clockmaker to both King Louis XV and Louis XVI, to whom he supplied a large number of clocks to the Palais royaux. Lépine was also patronised by the French aristocracy as well as the Spanish, British and Swedish royalty. Lépine initially worked as an “ouvrier libre”, then became a master on March 13, 1762, and taking over the stock of his colleague Caron, who held the title of Horloger du Roi et du Garde-Meuble de la Couronne. Having settled in the rue Saint-Denis in 1756, the place Dauphine in 1772, the rue des Fossés Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois in 1777, and then the rue des Vieux-Augustins during the Revolutionary period, Lépine led one of the most productive and renowned workshops of the reign of Louis XVI. He was also very aware of integrating scientific excellence with aesthetic beauty and thus only used cases by the finest bronziers such as Jean-Baptiste and Robert Osmond, Etienne Martincourt and Jean-Rémy Carangeot as well as the ébénistes Balthazar Lieutaud and Nicolas Petit and also employed the services of the gilders Noël, Martin and Henry. Lépine’s attention to detail also included the dial face, his early dials only had Arabic numerals for the hours and minutes. This was one of Lépine’s specialities, which he continued to use until about 1789 when he reverted back to the more usual combination of Roman and Arabic numerals.
In the late 18th century there were two clockmakers named De La Ruelle that were active in Paris. The first being André De La Ruelle (born in 1740), was apprenticed in 1754, registered his letters of mastery on October 13, 1762 and set up his workshop on rue Saint-Martin from 1772 to 1789 (See P. Verlet, Les bronzes dorés français du XVII siècle, Paris, 1999, p. 435). The second, Nicolas De Là Ruelle, seems to have started his career at the end of the reign of Louis XV and set up his workshop successively in Enclos des Quinze-Vingt, rue Croix des Petits-Champs and rue Richelieu at the Revolution.