FRENCH CHARLES X GILT BRONZE MANTEL CLOCK, BY LE ROY, PARIS
CIRCA 1820-1830
Estimate: £600 - £800
Auction: Lots 329 - 512 | 14 November 2024 at 10am
Description
white enamel dial with Roman numerals, signed ‘Le Roy Hr. du Roi/A PARIS’, the architectural neoclassical case after a known model titled 'Evening prayer' by Jean-Andre Reiche, representing the Duchess of Berry with her children, the a break arch pediment supported by Egyptian mask supports, a swag curtain above a figural scene of a mother with children and a bassinet, on a breakfront plinth base with garland and two neoclassical female roundel appliques set on toupie feet, the twin train movement with silk suspension and countwheel, striking to a bell, the backplate numbered ‘1059’ with a matching number pendulum
Dimensions
43cm high, 30cm wide, 19cm deep
Footnote
Note: The subject of the young boy being nursed by his mother, the Duchess de Berry, is the later Duke of Bordeaux, kneeling in front is his older sister Louise. The birth of the boy in 1820 was the reason for the creation of this clock, designed by Jean Andre Reiche. The birth was held in even greater significance due to the murder of his father, thus the son was referred to as “L'Enfant du miracle”.
For a comparable example with an identical case of the same size signed ‘Kinable, Palais Royal, Paris’ see; Les Andelys Enchères, Hotel Drouot, Paris, Decorative Arts, 14 May 2022, Lot 543
Literature: See ‘French Bronze Clocks’, by Elke Niehuser, Schiffer Pub Ltd, 1999, pp. 165, for a similar slightly taller example of this model, France, circa 1820, 48cm high