French, circa 1725

the scroll inscribed: La Prudence, l’honneur, l’exacte probité / s’unissent de concert dans ce portrait fidèle / et malgré le vice irrité / qui murmure et frémit dans son obscurité, / font par les mains de tems passer leur vray modèle / a la sage Postérité [Prudence, Honor, and exact Probability join together in this faithful portrait and, despite troubled Vice who mutters and twitches in his obscurity, by the hands of Time pass their true model to wise Posterity]

Possibly Joseph Bonnier de la Mosson 
Possibly his sale, Paris, 8 March 1745, lot 894 (“A Group of five figures allegorical bronzes of thirty pouces from the top, without base; it represents time crowning Virtue”, 350 livres)
Reverend H.B. Norman, Taunton, by 1904
With Jens Hermann and Arne Bruun Rasmussen, Copenhagen, 1977
Christie’s London, 7 April 1981, lot 63 (as School of Versailles, very early 18th century)
Private collection

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, on loan October 1989- October 1997
The David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, November 1997- September 2000 and again September 2000-September 2003
The Palace of the Antique in Early Modern Europe, David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, Chicago, 1999-2000, no. 25, p. 45
G. Bresc-Bautier, G. Scherf, J. D. Draper, and J. Bassett (eds.), Cast in Bronze. French Sculpture from Renaissance to Revolution, exh. cat.,Musée du Louvre, Paris, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Paris, 2009, no. 100, pp. 382-383
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, on loan 2010-2013

Catalogue of the furniture, marbles, bronzes, clocks, candelabra, majolica, ... in the Wallace Collection, London, 1908, p. 163, mentioned under no. 19;
J. Montagu, “The Bronze Groups Made for the Electress Palatine”, Kunst des Barock in der Toskana. Studien zur kunst unter den letzten Medici, Florence, 1976, pp. 126-135
I.D. Rowland (ed.), The Palace of the Antique in Early Modern Europe, exh. cat. David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, Chicago, 1999, p. 45, no. 25
R. Wenley, French Bronzes in the Wallace Collection, London, 2002, p. 76, fig. 59
G. Bresc-Bautier, G. Scherf, J. D. Draper, and J. Bassett (eds.), Cast in Bronze. French Sculpture from Renaissance to Revolution, exh. cat. Musée du Louvre, Paris, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Paris, 2009, no. 100, pp. 382-383

Beautiful golden brown patina beneath dark brown lacquer. Some original and standard casting flaws. An old repaired break on drapery below figure of Father Time, a repair to both lower arms and the scythe probably replaced. Beautiful quality.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This dynamic and ambitious allegorical bronze was included in the landmark
2009 exhibition, Cast in Bronze, organized by the Louvre and the
Metropolitan Museum of Art. Quintessentially Rococo in design, it is only one of two casts that are known, the other of which is in the Wallace Collection, London (fig. 1) and that bronze lacks a more refined surface treatment as well as the explanatory inscription seen here on the scroll.

An interest in mythology, beauty, nature and human relationships informed the art created in the Rococo period in France. Honor, love and passion were at the heart of court culture. Small bronzes were invested with theatrically gesturing figures and graceful postures, all of which were also prevalent in contemporary theater and music. Rococo art also reflected a shift in ideology in which moral standards were relaxed and lighter subjects were emphasized.

With the discovery of the present bronze and its unique inscription on
the scroll, scholars have been able to identify the figures
that inhabit this composition. However, the full meaning of this allegory
remains a mystery, as Wenley explains in his cataloguing of the Wallace
bronze and of the present cast in the Louvre and Metropolitan Museum
of Art exhibition (op.cit.).

This grand sculpture captures the Rococo in its playfulness and rich allegorical subject matter. At the peak of this sculpture is Time flying with an hourglass  in his hand; Vice emerges from his lair below; the central male figure representing Honor stands proudly wearing a laurel crown, and cornucopiae, gold chains and acclamatory scrolls spill out before him. Probity holds a triangle (for foursquare honesty) and shows indifference for symbols of wealth and war by her feet. Prudence holds the mirror of self-knowledge entwined with the snake of Wisdom (Wenley, op.cit., p.76).

The use of elaborate rockwork and theatrical figures in a tableau-like setting is comparable to bronzes attributed to François Lespingola of around 1690-1705 (see cat. nos. 80-83 in Bresc-Bautier et. al., 2009, op. cit.) and, as Wenley goes on to explain, to the work of René Frémin (1672-1744), such as his monumental lead fountain groups of the 1720s in La Granja Spain, and Philippe Bertrand.

Paintings of the period, like Antoine Coypel’s Time Discovering Truth, circa 1702, (fig. 2 for a print after the painting) may have provided a prototype for the allegory’s composition. The precise attribution for this bronze remains to be established, although it is clearly by a leading sculptor of the time. The animated figural types, careful modeling and finish celebrate the artistic liberation from the heavier Baroque designs and religious subject matter of the past to the lighter themes and compositions of the Rococo which were perfectly in tune with the aesthetic of Louis XV's reign.