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A rare Louis XV gilt bronze bracket clock of eight day duration, signed on the white enamel dial Viger à Paris and on the movement Viger Paris, the case stamped with a C-couronné poinçon, the dial with Roman and Arabic numerals and a fine pair of pierced gilt brass hands for the hours and minutes. The movement with anchor escapement, silk thread suspension, striking on the hour and half-hour with outside count wheel. The wonderful foliate scrolled case of waisted outline surmounted by a canted pedestal top upon which is a seated a putti pointing to a sundial held in both hands, the bracket formed of asymmetrical foliate scrolls
Paris, dated 1745-9
The clock: Height 46 cm, width 23 cm, depth 15 cm. The bracket: Height 24 cm, width 31 cm, depth 18 cm.
The C-couronné poinçon is evidence that the gilt bronze case was completed between March 1745 and February 1749, corresponding with a royal edict that all bronzes were to be struck with the mark as visible proof that duty had been paid to the crown.
The movement was made by François Viger (b. circa 1708 d. 1784), an outstanding clockmaker and merchant. He was born in Dieppe circa 1708 the son of a bourgeois gentleman named Emery and died in Paris on 29th March 1784. Partly trained by Louis Jouard, in 1733 Viger began working as an ouvrier libre in Paris at which time he was established at Enclos Saint-Martin. Later in 1744 he was received into the Paris clock making guild by a decree that exempted him from the normal apprenticeship qualifications. By the time he was made a maître he had moved to rue Saint-Denis. From 1770-71 Viger acted as garde-visiteur of his guild and then as député in 1778.
Viger’s productions were of the highest quality and as such were complimented by equally fine cases. He was one of Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain’s main clients but also used bronze cases supplied by Robert and Jean-Baptiste Osmond, the Caffiéris, René François Morlay, Nicolas Bonnet and Violet as well as those by the ébénistes, Balthazar Lieutaud and Antoine Foullet. Viger used springs made by Missier, watchcases by J. Labdouche while I. P. Gobert did some of his gilding work.
The duc de Belle-Isle was among his clients, while today his work can be found at the Musées de Fontaine-Chaalis, du Louvre and Jacquemart-André, Paris; Château de Versailles; Foundation Ephrussi de Rothschild, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat and the Aschaffenburg Schloss. The Historisches Museum Basel, the Museum of Decorative Arts, Prague and the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg also house examples from his outstanding career. Further works can be found at Liazenski Palace Warsaw; National Museet Stockholm and the Wallace Collection, London.
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