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A very fine Louis XV gilt bronze cartel clock of fourteen day duration, signed on the white enamel dial Tavernier à Paris and also signed on the backplate Tavernier Paris. The dial with outer Arabic numerals and inner Roman numerals and a very 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 on a single bell. The magnificent gilt bronze case of asymmetrical cartouche outline ornamented with scrolling acanthus sprays and a floral and foliate swag, surmounted by an acanthus spray flanked by a parrot to the right, with a glazed pendulum aperture below the dial above an asymmetrical foliate terminal
Paris, date circa 1750
Height 80 cm, width 40 cm.
The movement was made by Jean-Pierre Tavernier (d. after 1804), a very reputable eighteenth century Parisian clockmaker who was received as a maître on 1st March 1746 in application of the decree of 1st February that year. From then on he was established at rue de Bussy. Tardy notes that Tavernier died aged 81 in the republican year IV (i.e. between 22nd September 1795 and 22nd September 1796) though J-D Augarde notes that he died after 1804. Tavernier, whose aristocratic clientele included the engraver and connoisseur the duc de Caylus, was also well respected by his contemporaries as witnessed by the fact that after the death of the maître-horloger Jacques Debon in 1788 he was appointed to value the latter’s stock and tools of his trade. Prior to this in 1754 Tavernier had published a paper entitled “Table de différence du temps vrai au temps moyen”. Among his works in public collections is an example at the Musée d’Horlogerie, Evreux.
Especially renowned for his watches, Tavernier also made and sold some outstanding clocks, a number of which were housed in cases made by the ébéniste Balthazar Lieutaud and the fondeur François Rémond. The present gilt bronze case is of exceptional quality and of a very unusual design as it includes a parrot. Because of their exotic nature and habitat parrots were ideally suited to Rococo design but rarely appeared worked in bronze. In contrast due to their brilliantly coloured plumage they were often reproduced by the eighteenth century porcelain manufacturers. Among them the Meissen Factory who provided models for a number of different clock cases such as a Louis XV mantle clock with movement by Jean-François Dominice à Paris and case with porcelain figures of Pantalon and Colombine, two Indians and a pair of parrots set within a gilt bronze arbour (illustrated Pierre Kjellberg, “Encyclopédie de la Pendule Française du Moyen Age au XXe Siècle”, 1997, p. 140, pl. C). Less rarely does one find figures of these exotic birds modelled entirely of gilt-bronze though there were exceptions. In addition to the present example is another Louis XV clock, the case featuring a deer chase below the dial (signed Perrache à Paris) and a parrot perched on its summit (illustrated Kjellberg, ibid. p. 131, pl. E) The most exotic and overtly Rococo inspired Louis XV cases tended to feature animals such as elephants, rhinoceroses or even camels as well as Oriental figures but less rarely birds. Interestingly the latter came into their own later in the century as part of the expression of the classical revival but instead of parrots, birds such as doves, cockerels or eagles predominated.
Tavernier worked well into the second half of the eighteenth century, during which time clock cases housing his movements reflected the Neo-classical taste, for example a Louis XVI vase-shaped clock case with dolphins and foliage surmounted by a fountain (illustrated Kjellberg, ibid. p. 214, pl. A). Two of Tavernier’s sons, who both died after 1820 were involved in the clock industry, namely Louis who was received as a maître in 1788 and Pierre-Benjamin who was never a maître but established repute as a watch case maker and supplied many leaders in this field including Robert Robin, Gaspar Cachard, Lépine and Raguet-Lépine and especially Breguet.
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