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A rare Louis XVI gilt bronze striking travelling clock of eight day duration, signed on the white enamel dial Imbert L’Ainé, the dial by the enamellist Elie Barbezat, signed on the reverse Barbezat. The dial with outer Arabic and inner Roman numerals and a very fine pair of pierced gilt brass hands for the hours and minutes. The spring driven movement with anchor escapement, silk thread suspension, striking on the hour and half hour on a single bell, with outside count wheel. The elaborately scalloped and scrolled foliate-cast rectangular shaped case surmounted by a large faceted loop handle above the bell and floral trellis-cast top ornamented at the four corners by ball finials, with arched dial disc, glazed pendulum viewing aperture below the dial and glazed sides, on turned feet
Paris, date circa 1785
Height with handle 24 cm.
The Parisian clockmaker Jean-Gabriel Imbert l’Aîné (1735-95) made exceedingly fine clocks which were enjoyed by elite society such as the marquis de Brunoy and the duc des Deux-Ponts. Examples of his oeuvre can now be seen at the Musée de Carnavalet in Paris, the Patrimonio Nacional in Spain, the Residenzmuseum in Munich and the Palazzo Reale in Turin. Imbert l’Aîné was born in Devalon in the Bourgogne, during his youth he went to Paris, where he worked as a compagnon for his brother-in-law, Jean-Charles Olin (who married Imbert’s sister Anne). Imbert then worked as an ouvrier-libre (i.e. a worker independent of a guild) before being received as a Parisian maître-horloger in 1776. As testimony to the quality of his work he was then appointed a deputé of his guild in 1780. However four years later he declared bankruptcy but was able to continue in business. Unlike him, his younger brother Jean Edme, known as Imbert le Jeune (1741-1808) was never received as a maître but worked with his older brother at his various addresses. By 1776 Imbert l’Aîné was established at Carrefour de la Roquette, three years later at rue Planche-Mibray, in 1784 at rue des Arcis and at the time of his death in June 1795 at rue de Monceau.
Some of his watches were acquired from Humbert Droz of Switzerland, while his clock case were supplied by Parisian fondeurs notably Robert and Jean-Baptiste Osmond, Nicolas Bonnet, Michel Poisson, François Vion, Jean Goyer and René-François Morlay. Richard and Gaspard Monginot supplied his springs while his dials, as here, were made by the excellent enamellist Elie Barbezat, as well as Georges-Adrien Merlet and Bezelle.
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