Lot 295
  • 295

A Louis XV Ormolu Cartel Clock Case circa 1745, the case attributed to Jacques Caffiéri

Estimate
12,000 - 18,000 USD
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Description

  • height 37 in.; width 18in.
  • 94cm; 45.7cm
the associated circular enamelled dial with Roman numerals signed Lenoir A Paris, the cartouche-shaped case representing sunrise and sunset, surmounted by a putto and doves in Venus' chariot above clouds, the sides with scrolling foliage, the tapered lower part with a group depicting Psyche and Cupid.  Lacking movement and sunburst.

Catalogue Note

An identical case attributed to Caffiéri is in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, illustrated, Ottomeyer, Pröschel et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, Vol. I, p. 117, no. 2.5.11,  the attribution is based upon descriptions of the case and its elements in the Caffiéri inventories taken in 1747 and 1755. 

Another example of this cartel is in the Kunstindustrimuseet, Oslo, (illustrated, Tardy, French Clocks The World Over, Paris, 1981, 5th ed., vol. I, p. 307) and in the Garde-Meuble National in Paris.  A further example was with Maurice Segoura, Paris, illustrated Kjellberg, La Pendule Français du Moyen Age au XXe Siècle, Paris, 1997, p.103 fig. C and another, with replaced movement and dial, was sold, Sotheby's, London, June 25, 1982, lot 43, another was sold, Sotheby's, New York, May 20, 2005, lot 24.