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A very fine Empire gilt and patinated bronze and rouge griotte marble Pendule à L’Égyptienne of eight day duration, the white enamel dial with Roman numerals and a pair of fine 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, with outside count wheel. The magnificent case with the clock drum cast with drapery resembling an unveiled casket held in the hands of the goddess Isis who stands in a niche flanked by red marble pilasters cast with palmette mounts above a demi-lune base on gilt lion paw feet
Paris, date circa 1805-10
Height 52 cm, width 21 cm, depth 18 cm.
Literature: Hans Ottomeyer and Peter Pröschel, “Vergoldete Bronzen”, 1986, p. 336, pl. 5.3.2, illustrating a very similar clock with dial signed Mesnil H.er and case by the renowned French bronzier André-Antoine Ravrio (1759-1814), with additional Egyptian symbols and hieroglyphs and surmounting canopic bulls’ heads on the flanking pilasters. Musée du Louvre, Paris, exhibition catalogue: “Egyptomania, L’Egypte dans l’art occidental 1730-1790”, 20th January-18th April 1994, p.193, illustrating a similar clock. Jean-Dominique Augarde, “Les Ouvriers du Temps”, 1996, p. 358, pl. 265, illustrating a very similar clock with movement by Raguet-Lépine and the case attributed to André-Antoine Ravrio, with Isis in a slightly different sheath dress and with additional Egyptian symbols and hieroglyphs and surmounting urns on the flanking pilasters. Pierre Kjellberg, “Encyclopédie de la Pendule Française du Moyen Age au XXe Siècle”, 1997, p. 380, pl. A, illustrating an identical clock case but without the gilt mounts on the rouge marble pilasters, the dial of which is signed Caillouet à Paris. Elke Niehüser, “Die Französische Bronzeuhr”, 1997, p. 229, pl. 646, illustrating a similar case model but with additional Egyptian symbols and hieroglyphs and surmounting canopic bulls’ heads on the flanking pilasters.
This magnificent clock was based upon a design by Thomas Hope (1769-1831), which he illustrated in his publication “Household Furniture and Interior Decoration”, 1807, plate 13. After his travels throughout the Middle East, Thomas Hope, returned to his London residence in Duchess Street, 1799 where his clock was stood amongst his collection of antiquities and antiques. Hope’s clock, which was probably manufactured in Paris, can now be viewed at Buscot Park, Faringdon, Oxfordshire. Having inherited the latter property in 1934, the 2nd Lord Faringdon acquired the clock along with a large part of Hope’s collection, which he purchased specifically to ornament the hall at Buscot. Another similar example can be found at Brighton Pavilion in the Ante Room of the King’s apartments.
Thomas Hope was born in Holland, the son of a rich banking family of Scottish origin. Following an eight year grand tour of the Mediterranean countries, including Egypt, Turkey, Greece and Italy he settled in England in about 1796 and was soon to become an influential patron of the arts, a leading arbiter taste of Regency England and a highly original furniture designer. His work in the Egyptian style has various sources including inspirations from his own travels as well as publications such as V. Denon’s “Voyage dans la basse et la haute Egypte” of 1802. His “Household Furniture and Interior Decoration” of 1807 proved to an exceptional publication, which established Hope’s reputation as a designer of outstanding vision and influential style.
Isis was one the more important mythological Egyptian goddesses. Wife of Osiris and mother of Horus she was worshipped as the archetypal wife and mother.
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