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A very fine small Louis XVI gilt bronze column clock of eight day duration, signed on the white enamel dial Jen Bte Dutertre à Paris, with fine gilt bronze case stamped 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 and short pendulum, striking on the hour and half hour on a single bell, with outside count wheel. The circular bezel surrounded by a ribbon-tied laurel wreath mounted upon a broken fluted column and surmounted by a covered vase with berried finial, ring handles, geometric key band and laurel swags on a stepped circular base with spiral fluting and laurel band upon 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 identical column clock with 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 identical case stamped Osmond with movement by Louis Montjoye. Kjellberg also cites an identical case with movement by Jean-Baptiste Dutertre l’Aîné, the same maker as the present clock.
Robert Osmond (1711-89, maître 1746) and his nephew Jean-Baptiste Osmond (1742- after 1790, maître 1764) made a number of column clock cases. The design for this particular model appears in the Osmond’s “Livre de desseins”, no. 53, priced at 198 livres.
The esteemed Parisian maker, Jean Baptiste Dutertre II, also known as Dutertre l’Aîné (1715-73), who made the movement for this fine clock is known to have used bronze cases by Jean-Baptiste Osmond and Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain. He also used veneered cases by the ébénistes Joseph de Saint-Germain and Balthazar Lieutaud and other sumptuous cases in Meissen porcelain. Dutertre came from a dynasty of master clockmakers; he was the son and successor of Jean-Baptiste I (1684-1734) and brother of Jean-Abraham (maître 1739, d. 1778) and Nicolas-Charles (1715-93). Received as a maître-horloger in 1735, he continued his father’s business at Quai des Orfèvres. In 1742 he presented a clock and a watch with equation to the Académie Royale des Sciences, Paris. His work was owned by many eminent collectors including Charles II of Spain, the marquis de Béringhen, de Ponts, de Marigny, de Chantemerle, the duc de Penthièvre, the duchesse de Mazarin, the comte de La Marck, President Bochard de Saron as well as Monsieurs Radix de Sainte-Foy, Le Peletier de Mortefontaine and d’Argouges. Today one can find examples of his work at the Musées des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, de Jacquemart-André, Fontaine-Chaalis and Lazienski Palace, Warsaw.
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