A Louis XV ormolu-mounted tulipwood regulateur en cabinet incorporating a barometer and a thermometer circa 1765, reveneered, the movement by Ferdinand Berthoud

the white enamelled regulateur dial with Roman numerals, indicating hours, minutes, seconds, months and real time, signed on the backplate Ferdinand Berthoud a Paris, contained within a drum-shaped case above a rectangular pendulum case with glazed aperture and fitted on one side with a thermometer dial inscribed Thermometre Construit par Fd Berthoud, and on the other with a barometer; the whole outlined with molded ormolu borders cast with acanthus leaves, laurel husks and profile masks; the lower part with a writing slide and outset chamfered fluted corners fitted with three doors enclosing small drawers, centered by the ormolu figure of Flore, the corners with pendant laurel leaves and the whole outlined with ormolu borders marked at the corners with rosettes.  Originally veneered in ebony.

Possibly commissioned by Louise Elisabeth de la Rochefoucauld (1716-1797) for the residence on rue de la Seine in Paris

Collection of Philippe Claude Maëlrondt, marchand de curiosités, sold, November 1824, lot 350

Collection of Ms. Lyne Stephens, Lynford Hall, Norfolk, and Upper Grove House, Roehampton, sold, Christie's, London, May 9, 1895, lot 74

With the dealer Ascher Wertheimer, London when it was reveneered circa 1900

Collection of Walter Burns, Esq., sold, Christie's, London, July 5, 1928, lot 145

Collection of Sir Robert Abdy, Bt., Newton Ferrers, Cornwall

Galerie Maurice Segoura, Paris

Collection of M. Tannouri, sold, Ader Picard Tajan, Paris, November 15, 1983, lot 140

Private collection, sold, Christie's, London, June 17, 1987, lot 67

Exhibited 'Ferdinand Berthoud 1727-1807' La Chaux-de-Fonds, Besançon and Paris,May 1984-March 1985, catalogue number 32.

P. Kjellberg, Encyclopédie de la pendule Française, Paris, 1997, p. 309, fig. C.

Pierre Verlet, La Maison du XVIII Siècle, 1966, p. 210.

Pierre Verlet, The 18th Century in France, Fribourg, 1967, p. 206, pl. 177.

J.D. Augarde, Les ouvriers du temps, 1996, Geneva, illustrated, p. 281, no. 215.

No archival documentation has yet established for whom this impressive clock and cabinet was made.  However a notice published  on March 4, 1796 described: "Un joli meuble en bois d'ébene de quatre pieds de large par trois pieds de haut formant cabinet à secret renfermant une infinite de tiroirs avec sa pendule dessus à vendre rue de Seine, Hotel de la Rochefoucauld".

Although the measurements do not precisely correspond, it is tempting to identify the present clock with this description, especially taking note of the mention of numerous drawers secreted within a cabinet.  The hotel de la Rochefoucauld was, at that time, occupied by Louise Elisabeth de la Rochfoucauld, duchesse d'Enville.  The duchesse d'Enville was also the owner of the château de la Roche-Guyon for which, between 1765 and 1769, she commissioned a new salon.

The ormolu figure symbolising Flore is identical to one on a meuble d'appui with three cupboard doors formerly in the collection of the Duke of Sutherland at Strafford House, now in the J. Paul Getty Museum.

Probably originally intended as a collector's cabinet, the form of this piece and its original ebony decoration would suggest a maker such as Pierre Garnier (maître in 1742), or Philippe-Claude Montigny (maître in 1766).

The regulateur matches exactly the description of lot 350 in the sale of the collection of the dealer Maëlrondt in 1824:

FERDINAND BERTHOUD (1727-1807)

Ferdinand Berthoud was one of the pre-eminent and most distinguished horlogers of the 18th century.  He was a member of the Royal Society of London (1764), Horloger Mecanicien de Sa Majeste et de la Marine ayant l'inspection de la Construction des Horloge Marines, 1764.  Member of the commission to establish a Royal Clock Factory in Paris, 1786.  Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur 1804.  From 1766 he designed all the marine clocks and watches used on the King's ships, and from 1770, he gave up "working for the public" and handed over the management of his workshop to his nephews.