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A VERY FINE NEO-CLASSICAL COLUMN CLOCK
A very fine Louis XVI gilt bronze and marble column clock of eight day duration by Frédéric Duval, signed on the white enamel dial and on the movement Frederic Duval à Paris, housed in a fine gilt bronze case attributed to Robert and Jean-Baptiste Osmond. The dial with Arabic and Roman numerals, with a 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 circular gilt bronze bezel surrounded by a ribbon-tied laurel wreath mounted upon a broken fluted marble column with gilded flutes below the dial, surmounted by a gilt bronze covered vase with berried finial, ring handles, and laurel swags, a berried laurel wreath band at the base of the fluted column on a square base
Paris, date circa 1770
Height 35.5 cm.
Literature: Hans Ottomeyer and Peter Pröschel, “Vergoldete Bronzen”, 1986, p. 194, pl. 3.12.3, illustrating an almost identical clock with gilt bronze column, the case by Robert and Jean-Baptiste Osmond and movement by Gudin à Paris, in Stockholm Castle. Pierre Kjellberg, “Encyclopédie de la Pendule Française du Moyen Age au XXe Siècle”, 1997, p. 185, colour illustration showing an almost identical case with gilt bronze column stamped Osmond with movement by Louis Montjoye. Kjellberg also cites another almost identical case with movement by Jean-Baptiste Dutertre l’Aîné.
The quality and the close similarity between this and other almost identical models confirm the attribution to Osmond. Robert Osmond (1711-89, maître 1746) and his nephew Jean-Baptiste Osmond (1742- after 1790, maître 1764) made a number of column clock cases with varying differences in decoration. The design for this particular model appears in the Osmond’s “Livre de desseins”, no. 53, priced at 198 livres.
Robert Osmond was one of the most prolific as well as one of the most successful fondeur-ciseleurs of his day, working as adeptly in the Louis XV as the Louis XVI style. Valued by connoisseurs today, as much as in his day, his bronzes were widely distributed by clockmakers and marchands-merciers. He was born in Canisy, near Saint-Lô and having entered his apprenticeship at a late stage became a maître in 1746 and from 1764 until 1775 worked in association with his nephew Jean-Baptiste Osmond. In addition to column clocks Osmond specialised in cartel cases as well as others shaped as vases with lions’ heads. Another remarkable one being a clock decorated with a globe, cupids and a Sèvres porcelain plaque (Musée du Louvre, Paris). Osmond’s work can be found among the world’s finest collections including the Musée des Arts Décoratifs and Musée Nissim-de-Camondo in Paris, the Musée Condé at Chantilly, the Nationalmuseet Stockholm and the Museum of Art Cleveland, Ohio.
Frédéric Du Val (d. after 1783; also referred to as Duval) is recorded as having used cases made by Osmond, including an important earlier Louis XV period case featuring ‘The Rape of Europa’ (illustrated in Pierre Kjellberg, “Encyclopédie de la Pendule Française du Moyen Age au XXe Siècle”, 1997, p 133). Du Val also used clock cases by Joseph de Saint-Germain, François Duhamel, Nicolas Bonnet, Michel Poisson and René-François Morlay. Du Val worked as compagnon to François Béliard (1723-95) and as an ouvrier libre before being incorporated into the Parisian clockmakers guild in 1777. By the following year he was based at rue Mazarine and then in 1781 at rue Jacob. One of Du Val’s most important patrons was the duc de Choiseul, while today one can find one of his clocks in the Musée du Louvre Paris.
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