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PROPERTY OF VARIOUS OWNERS AN EMPIRE ORMOLU AND VERDE ANTICO MARBLE MANTEL CLOCK (LE CHAR DES VENDAN

Currency:USD Category:Everything Else / Other Start Price:NA Estimated At:50,000.00 - 70,000.00 USD
PROPERTY OF VARIOUS OWNERS AN EMPIRE ORMOLU AND VERDE ANTICO MARBLE MANTEL CLOCK (LE CHAR DES VENDAN
property of Various owners AN EMPIRE ORMOLU AND VERDE ANTICO MARBLE MANTEL CLOCK (LE CHAR DES VENDANGES) Possibly by Thomire, Duterme et Cie., circa 1810, The circular white-enameled dial with black Roman chapter ring, Arabic calendar ring, and jeweled enamel decoration of a guilloche formed of a garland, signed Cachard sucr. de Ch. Le Roi/ A PARIS and Dubuission behind a domed glass door within a cylindrical bezel, the movement with pinwheel escapement and half-second sweep hand and date hand, surmounted by a draped seated figure of a woman wearing a lion skin and grape wreath and holding in her right hand a staff with grapes to the end, and in her left hand a tazza, on a chariot manned by two figures, a young satyr standing atop the end handing her grapes, a ewer in his left hand, and a putto at the front leading two lions, a large ewer behind the chariot, on a rectangular base with rounded ends, the front decorated with standing cornucopiÊ, joined by vine swags and centering a satyr mask flanked by two nymph masks, flanked by a triglyph and metope of a female mask, each end set with a trophy of masks and ribbon-tied vine swags, the lower edge set with a leaftip ogee molding, on reeded toupie feet 22 x 25 x 7 in. (56 x 63 x 18 cm) $50,000-70,000 Another example of this clock is in the collections of the Mobilier national, Paris. (E. Dumonthier, Les bronzes du Mobilier national — Pendules et cartels. Paris, 1911, pl. 40; Elke Nieh¸ser, French Bronze Clocks, Atglen, PA, 1999, p. 241, fig. 925.) Two others are also known: sold Bourg-en-Bresse, November 13, 1988, and Partridge Fine Arts PLC, london. HENRI-FRAN«OIS DUBUISSON (act. 1769-1823), maÓtre emailleur in 1769: Together with his equally famous colleagues Joseph Coteau (1740-1801) and Georges-Adrien Merlet (1754-after 1812), Dubuisson was one of the three great enamellers of clock dials at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century. The renowned clockmaker Antide Janvier paid him a supreme compliment in 1800 when describing one of his own clocks: “The dials were executed by the Citoyen Dubuisson who, in addition to having the greatest skill in his art, is possessed with a knowledge which assures the success of the most difficult pieces; it is a true service to all amateurs to inform them of the modern and hard-working artist.” (Description d’une SphËre Mouvante…, 1800-An VIII, augmentÈe en 1813/1814 de plusieurs notes interessantes, de nouveaux calculs de rouages, & etc. …. (manuscript, Jacques van Damme Collection, Antwerp) (Gillian Wilson, et al., European Clocks in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 1996, p. 170, 7ff.) Dubuisson worked for the fondeur-ciseleurs Claude Galle (Denise Ledoux-Lebard, “Bronziers de l’Empire,” in Vergoldete Bronzen. Munich, 1986, Vol. II, p. 720) and Pierre-Etienne Romain (comte de Villafranca [sold Paris, March 19, 1873, lot 175] and Mobilier national, deposited at ElysÈe Palace, Paris [Jean-Dominique Augarde, Les Ouvriers du Temps. Paris, 1996, pp. 146-47, fig. 110]), and the clockmakers Louis-FranÁois Godon (J. Ramon Colon de Carvajal, Catalogo de Relojes de Patrimonio Nacional. Ex. cat., Madrid, 1987, nos. 57, 59, 64, 89, 91), Jean-Simon Bourdier (Ibid., p. 117; Pierre Kjellberg, La Pendule franÁaise. Paris, 1997, p. 227, fig. D, pp. 296-97, fig. A), Robert Robin (ibid., p. 254), Jacques-Pierre-Thomas BrÈant (Catherine Cardinal, La revolution dans la mesure du temps: calandrier rÈpublicain, heure dÈcimale, 1793-1805. Ex. cat. La Chaux-de-Fonds, Musee International d’Horologerie, 1989, pp. 30, 32, 76.), Guydamour (Kjellberg, op. cit., p. 240, fig. A), FranÁois Drouot, Louis BrÈguet (Kjellberg, op. cit., p. 378, fig. D), Edme Coeur, DieudonnÈ Kinable (Christie’s Monaco, June 19, 1988, lot 36), Janvier (Augarde, op. cit., fig. 28; Augarde & Jean-NÈrÈe Ronfort, Antide Janvier, Paris, 1998, p. 29, fig. 10, p. 85, fig. 42, p. 87, fig. 44, p. 89, fig. 46, pp. 97-98, figs. 51-53; Exposition des Produits in 1823), C. Caillaud (Kjellberg, op. cit., p. 306, fig. B), Thomas (Kjellberg, op. cit., p. 261), Martin (Kjellberg, op. cit., p. 267), Jacques-FranÁois Vaillant, Jean-FranÁois de Belle, Joseph Revel (Augarde, op. cit., fig. 28), FÈlix Thiaffet, the Baillys (Augarde, op. cit., p. 275, fig. 214), the Berthouds, and the Lepautes. Other clocks with dials by Dubuisson are known: • The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (Wilson, op. cit., pp. 124-25). • MusÈe FranÁois Duesberg, Mons, Belgium (Nieh¸ser, op. cit., pp. 158-59, fig. 259). • Private collections (Kjellberg, op. cit., p. 260, pp. 318-19, fig. E, pp. 322-23, fig. B). PIERRE-PHILIPPE THOMIRE (1751-1843) Perhaps the most famous bronzier of the late 18th and early 19th century, Thomire associated with Duterme, Beauvisage and Carbonnelle in 1804. Known as Thomire, Duterme et Cie., the company flourished, not least because Thomire received a gold medal for his work at the 1806 Exposition de l’Industrie. The present clock is dated to this period of their production on the basis of its visual resemblance and iconographic closeness to their clock known as Le Char des Quatre Saisons on deposit from the Garde Meuble to the MinistËre des Affaires EtrangËres (Dumonthier, op. cit., pl. 41), with the maquette surviving at the MusÈe des Art dÈcoratifs, paris.