A LOUIS XVI ORMOLU MANTEL CLOCK "A LA GEOFFRIN"

THE CASE ATTRIBUTED TO ROBERT OSMOND, THE MOVEMENT BY MARTIN, PARIS, CIRCA 1775-80

Details

A LOUIS XVI ORMOLU MANTEL CLOCK "A LA GEOFFRIN"
THE CASE ATTRIBUTED TO ROBERT OSMOND, THE MOVEMENT BY MARTIN, PARIS, CIRCA 1775-80
The case with figure reading with putti and globe, leaning against a square case with pinecone, foliate mounted finial, the dial surrounded by ribbon bows, berried foliage and swags, the later Directoire white enamel dial with Roman hours and Arabic minutes, inner calendar ring, inscribed 'ENGAZ A PARIS', the twin barrel movement with verge escapement and numbered countwheel strike to bell (lacking), the backplate signed 'Martin a Paris', above a stepped base with rosette frieze and laurel swags
17 ½ in. (44.5 cm.) high; 23 ½ in. (60 cm.) wide; 10 ½ in. (26 cm.) deep

Lot Essay

This enduringly popular model of clock derives from the model ‘à la Geoffrin’, created in 1754 by the sculptor Laurent Guiard for Madame Geoffrin (1699-1777), who hosted one of most important literary salons of the 18th century in Paris, on the rue Saint-Honoré. Until Christian Baulez's article revealed the exact origins of the model, the two clocks supplied by the marchand-mercier Lazare Duvaux for the use of the duc de Bourgogne on 14 October 1758 - une pendule à sonnerie de J. Le Roy, composée d'une couchée représentant l'Etude en bronze doré d'or moulu - and to the comte du Luc on 9 November (also with movement by Le Roy) had always been considered to be the earliest examples recorded (C. Baulez, 'La Pendule à la Geoffrin Un Modèle a Succès', L'Objet d'Art L'Estampille , April 1989, pp. 34-41). However, in 1757 the marquis de Marigny had already acquired a clock of this model, with a movement by Musson, through Madame Geoffrin. The reference in her notebooks to the model is very specific: –
'...Ma pendule de Guyard: elle m'est revenue à 3000 livres par ce que j'en ai fait faire le modèle; elle est l'original'.

Laurent Guiard (1723-88) was a pupil of Edmé Bouchardon, and it is possible that Madame Geoffrin commissioned the model between January 1754, when he exhibited an equestrian sculpture of Louis XV and September 1754, when he left for Rome. Madame Geoffrin’s original clock is believed to be that which she bequeathed in her will of February 1777 to Simon-Charles Boutin, and had a movement by Musson. In 1768 Madame Geoffrin commissioned another clock of this model, also with movement by Musson – 'une pendule pareille à la mienne' – for Denis Diderot, which survives in the Musée Dubreuil de Saint-Germain at Langres. Other members of Madame Geoffrin's circle who owned 'une pendule à L'Emploi du Temps' included the banker Jean-Joseph de Laborde, the duc de la Vrillière, and the eminent 18th-century financier Nicolas Beaujon, whose clock is now in the musée de l'Histoire de France, Paris (J.-D. Augarde, Les Ouvriers du Temps, Paris, 1996, pp. 90-91). Another known clock, signed Berthoud, was originally in Gatchina, and then moved to Saint Petersburg, and was owned by the Grand Duke Paul, before his rise to the throne in 1796. It is now conserved in Pavlovsk castle in Saint Petersburg.

There are some variations to the model – including the addition of the small child and globe, the shape of the ‘drum’ against which the figure is leaning, the presence or absence of a finial above the dial and the shape and adornment of the base. Similarly, there were various horlogers who provided movements for cases of this model: Julien Le Roy features most prominently, followed by Ferdinand Berthoud but also notably including Musson and Martin. Baulez suggests that the examples with movements by Berthoud were probably cast by the founder Edmé Roy, who, according to an inventory drawn up after his wife's death on 19 September 1764, had two examples in the workshop, one a master model. The inventory shows that Roy worked extensively for Berthoud, who is recorded as owing him 3,286 livres, most probably for various clocks of this type. The ébéniste Balthazar Lieutaud was Berthoud's main supplier of régulateur carcases until his death in 1780, and there are examples of clocks of this model whose bases are stamped by Lieutaud.

As well as Lieutaud, the plinths of some examples bear the stamp of Joseph Baumhauer, including that owned by Horace Walpole at Strawberry Hill, which had a movement by Le Roy, bought for £50 before 1774 and illustrated in John Carter's watercolour of the Refectory at Strawberry Hill dating from the late 1780s (sold anonymously at Christie's, London, 23 June 1999, lot 120, £106,000); another example – previously been thought to have been the Walpole clock – is conserved at Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire, with a movement by Le Roy (G. de Bellaigue, The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor: Furniture, Clocks and Gilt Bronzes, London, 1974, 1, no. 17, pp. 104-7). Similarly, there is a clock in the Wallace Collection, with a movement by Berthoud and base stamped by Joseph, which was purchased in February 1802 by the Earl of Yarmouth, the future 3rd Marquess of Hertford, from the collection of Lady Holderness (F.J.B. Watson, Wallace Collection Catalogues: Furniture, London,1956, F267, pl. 55). The clock in the Wallace collection bears springs dated 9 October 1768, enabling precise dating, and the frieze mount of Vitruvian scrolls is similar to that on the famous Lalive de Jully bureau by Joseph, now in the Musée Condé in Chantilly.

Renaud César Louis de Choiseul (1735–1791), 2nd duc de Praslin owned an example of this model of clock, including the same base mounted with a frieze of flower-filled guilloche hung with ribbon-tied laurel garlands, which can be seen placed on a cartonnier, probably by Simon Oeben, in a miniature by van Blarenberghe from the celebrated Choiseul Box, circa 1770-1, showing the cabinet octagone in the hôtel de Choiseul in Paris. The clock appeared in the duc’s posthumous sale in 1793, lot 248 as: ‘bureau de marqueterie Boulle, […], portant une pendule du nom de Martin à Paris, dans sa boîte de forme carrée, avec figure de femme assise sur le côté désignant l’Étude, et un génie, le tout en cuivre ciselé doré d’or moulu’. A possible contender for this clock, the dial and movement signed by Martin, was formerly in the collection of Baron Elie de Rothschild, and is now with Galerie Kugel, Paris, who have attributed the ebony base to Lieutaud. A further identical example, also with dial and movement by Martin but with the figures in patinated rather than gilded bronze, has a base stamped by Philippe-Claude Montigny (Augarde, op. cit., p. 165, fig. 134).

A clock of this model was also in the celebrated collection of Blondel de Gagny, included in his sale, P. Rémy, Paris, 10-24 December 1776 and 8-22 January 1777, lot 1024 - Une pendule par Martin, ornée d’une belle figure de femme assise, représentant l’étude, sur une base de bronze doré : hauteur 11 pouces [29.8 cm.] non compris un socle de bois noirci.
The pendule à la Geoffrin enjoyed great popularity for over thirty years, with the fondeur-doreur François Remond recorded as selling an example in 1782. After Lazare Duvaux's death, Simon-Philippe Poirier probably became the main marchand-mercier for these clocks.

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