A Directoire Gilt and Patinated Bronze Figural Mantel Clock, the dial signed Gaston Jolly à Paris, Circa 1800

Sotheby’s New York, 25 April 1998, lot 212

Clocks of this type are only rarely fitted with the figure of a monkey. The monkey, is however incorporated into the gilt-bronze base of a series called Le Portefaix inspired from Bernadin Saint-Pierre's novel, Paul et Virginie. The monkey is cast seated on a swing suspended between palm fronds similar to those on the base of the offered lot, see Tardy, La Pendule Francaise, 5th Ed., Vol. II, p. 248. Identical figures of porters supportiing the movement of a clock after Choiselat-Gallien, sold Sotheby's, Monaco, 25 October 1981, lot 90, illustrated, see also H. Ottomeyer and P. Pröschel,Vergoldete Bronzen (Munich 1986), Vol.I, p. 379 fig. 5.15.20.