Lot 23
  • 23

An important gilt-bronze and patinated bronze, tortoiseshell, brass and ebony clock 'au Jour et la Nuit', Régence, by André-Charles Boulle and his sons, the dial and the movement signed Gilbert / A Paris; on a later base, probably second half 19th century

Estimate
120,000 - 180,000 EUR
bidding is closed

Description

  • red tortoiseshell, tin , brass, gilt patinated bronze
  • Pendule : haut. 74 cm., larg. 84 cm., prof. 18 cm. ; Socle : haut. 21 cm., larg. 81 cm., prof. 29 cm.
  • Clock: height 29¼in.; width 33 in.; depth 7 in.; Pedestal: height 8¼in.; width 32in.; depth 11½in.
the reclining figures after Michelangelo, the circular dial with white and blue enamelled Roman numerals, surmounted by an hourglass, the base with trellis and quatrefoils, guilloche, shells and scrolls; on a tortoiseshell and brass contrepartie marquetry base with masks and foliage; (some elements replaced: the owl, the acanthus on both sides of the case, the center of the shell)

Provenance

- Etienne Perrinet de Jars (1670-1762);
- Louise-Jacqueline Perrinet de Jars (1704-1788), wife of David Perrinet du Pezeau (1697-1767), her daughter;
- Marquise de Langernon-Maulévrier (1739-1799), her daughter;
- Duchesse de Damas d'Antigny (1759-1827), her daughter;
- Comtesse Charles de Voguë (1784-1838), her daughter;
- Peut-être marquis Léonce de Vogüé (1805-1877), his son;
- Sale in Paris, Piasa, 18 June 2008, lot 45
- collection Robert de Balkany, rue de Varenne, Paris

Catalogue Note

The origin of this clock was recently discovered by Jean-Nérée Ronfort and Jean-Dominique Augarde and found in the inventory of the Grand Cabinet of Etienne Perrinet de Jars (MC, CXV, 748), after his death in 1762 and described as follows: Un bureau de six pieds de long de marqueterie garni de trois tiroirs à double face, de ses coins, sabots, entrées de clef, masque et quart de rond, et encore garni d’un serre-papier y assortissant supportant un socle aussy marqueté de Boule surmonté de deux figures de bronze et d’une pendule en oeil de bœuf dans sa boite de même marqueterie garnie de bronze doré à cadran d’émail marquant les heures et les minutes portant le nom de Gilbert à Paris.”

It is interesting to note that the marquetry base in particular is described and that the clockmaker Gilbert is named, thereby dispelling any doubt about the identification of the present piece. It is impossible, however, to say when the bureau and the cartonnier were separated from the clock, but it seems certain that they no longer appear in the 1877 inventory of the Marquis de Vogüé. In this respect it is necessary to recall that the collections gathered together in rue Fabert during the time of the Marquis de Vogüé also included another cartonnier with clock from Machault Arnouville and photographed in situ before the destruction of the hotel (see V. Pruchnicki, Arnouville, le château des Machault au XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 2013, p.39), the pendulum of André-Charles Boulle's model of Le Temps Couché. Machault also possessed another comparable unit, the pendulum of the Parques model, still intact at the time of the sale of Mademoiselle de Choiseul, a descendant of Machault, May 21, 1896 in Paris, lot 3.

Originally the Berry area, the family of Etienne Perrinet de Jars (1670-1762) was renowned in the wine trade, where he made his fortune and bought his hôtel particulier in the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in 1746. It was remodelled in the nineteenth century and today it is known as the Cercle Interallié. It was originally built in 1714 by the architect Pierre Grandhomme for Président Chevalier, transformed by Jean-Michel Chevotet (1698-1772) for Perrinet de Jars and finally restored again for Baron Henri de Rothschild in the mid-19th century. The furnishings of the hôtel at the time of Etienne Perrinet de Jars included many mounted objects, Gobelins tapestries, a beautiful chest of drawers in copper and tortoiseshell and two low cupboards decorated with figures of Apollo, Daphne and Marsyas.

A number of clocks in this style are listed: one from Lepaute is kept at the Hôtel de Soubise in Paris and comes from the Princes of Condé (figure 3, reproduced in JP Samoyault, André-Charles Boulle and his family, Geneva, 1979, p.229 and in JD Augarde, Les Ouvriers du Temps, Paris, Geneva, 1996, 197, No. 158); another from Etienne Le Noir, was sold in Paris, December 17, 2012, lot 31. A third was sold by Christie's in Monte-Carlo on July 1, 1995, lot 98 and finally one sold Christie's Monte-Carlo on December 13, 1998, lot 400.

In the inventory after the death of André-Charles Boulle which was drawn up in 1732, an entry under no 90 states Les modèles de la pandulle avec les figures de Michel-Ange pezant soixante-huit livres, prisés à raison de cent sols la. In addition, there are two drawings by Boulle, one initially preserved at the Berlin Museum of Industrial Art (Fig. 2, now destroyed) and the other at the Hermitage of St. Petersburg (Fig. 4) depicting clocks of the same model and placed at the top of a piece of furniture.

During the eighteenth century several similar clocks were listed, one delivered to Machault d’Arnouville, another to the Prince de Condé and a third to the Duc de La Vrillère. There is also an example listed with Président de Nicolaÿ as well as with Jean de Julienne, the Comte de Lauraguais and Randon de Boisset.