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RICHARD REDDING ANTIQUES |
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RICHARD REDDING ANTIQUES |
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A superb and very rare Louis XVI longcase regulator of eight day duration, signed on the white enamel dial and on the movement Charles Le Roy à Paris, housed in a magnificent bois de rose and bois de violette oak carcass case by Balthazar Lieutaud stamped B. LIEUTAUD on the rear of the base, with magnificent gilt-bronze mounts attributed to Philippe Caffiéri. The dial with outer Arabic minute and inner Roman hour numerals and a superb pair of pierced gilt brass hands, the minute hand with sunburst and a blued steel pointer for the sweep centre seconds. The four-pillar movement with large brass plates secured to an oak seat board, with pin-wheel anchor escapement, knife edge suspension, the steel rod with a massive brass bob and regulation nut below the bob, pully wound, weight driven and going, striking on a single bell, with a string pull to activate the maintaining power. The beautiful quarter veneered case with a square hood ornamented with four rosettes around the gilt bezel, surmounted by a stepped sockle supporting the figure of a reclining winged Cronus, holding an hour-glass in his left hand and a scythe in his right, the trunk with tapering rectangular panel enclosing the brass framed glazed door, through which one can view the pendulum and massive brass bob, above a panelled quarter veneered base Paris, date circa 1770 Height 227 cm. Literature: Tardy, “La Pendule Française” 1949, vol. II, p. 161, illustrating a similar Lieutaud case in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, with the same surmounting figure of Cronus. T. Dell, “The Frick Collection, An Illustrated Catalogue, V Furniture”, 1992, p. 317, illustrating a similar Lieutaud case. Peter Hughes, “The Wallace Collection Catalogue of Furniture”, 1996, p. 445, no. F271, illustrating a similar Lieutaud case. Jean-Dominique Augarde, “Les Ouvriers du Temps”, 1996, p. 266, illustrating a similar Lieutaud case in the Musée de Versailles. This rare and beautiful longcase clock can be compared with a number of similar works, many of which are housed in important public collections. It also combines the talents of some of the finest makers of their day namely Balthazar Lieutaud (b. circa 1720 d.1780), who made the superb quality case. This is decorated with magnificent mounts attributed to Philippe Caffiéri (1714-74), while the celebrated firm of Charles Le Roy made the movement. The case is one of the finest and earliest examples of Neo-classical design and belongs to a group of similar Lieutaud models all with distinctive tapering pendulum shaft. The earliest example dated 1767 is now in the Frick Collection, New York. Like an almost identical model but with ebony veneer, in the Musée de Versailles, it houses a movement by Ferdinand Berthoud and is surmounted by the figure of Apollo in his chariot by Philippe Caffiéri. Another in ebony, surmounted by an urn is in the Wallace Collection, London. There are also similar examples in the Linsky Collection, Metropolitan Museum, New York, the Spanish Palace, Madrid and the Dutch Royal Collection at Soestdijk Palace, Baarn. The present model is closest to one made circa 1770 in the Jones Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London housing a movement by Robert Robin. Though the latter is more elaborate the overall design remains the same and is likewise surmounted by an identical figure of Cronus, or Father Time. T. Dell, ibid. lists a number of other similar Lieutaud cases including one with movement by Jean-Simon Bourdier, which this gallery had the pleasure of once owning, (see “Richard Redding, Masterpieces of the Past”, 1994, front cover). As here it was crowned by the same figure of Cronus. Dell also lists another, signed on the dial Charles Le Roy but housed in an unsigned Lieutaud case (sold in Paris 1941). Balthazar Lieutaud, who was received as a maître-ébéniste in 1749, was the son of the ébéniste Charles Lieutaud and grandson of François Lieutaud, an ébéniste from Marseilles. Regarded as one of the most important cabinetmakers to specialise in production of clock cases he worked with bronziers such as Philippe Caffiéri, Charles Grimpelle and Edme Roy to produce an array of sumptuous cases. In turn these housed movements by many great clockmakers including Charles Le Roy, Ferdinand Berthoud, Robert Robin, Julien Le Roy, Lepaute, Lory and Bourdier. Lieutaud’s earlier cases followed the curvaceous lines of the Rococo but from about 1765 exhibited all the features of the fashionable Neo-classical style. By 1750 he was installed in the clockmakers’ district at rue de la Pelleterie on the Île de la Cité, and then moved to the nearby rue d’Enfer, 1772. After his death, his wife, Nicole Godard (1721-1800), continued the atelier until the mid 1780’s when she sold the majority of stock to Berthoud. In his definitive dictionary, Thieme Becker notes that Lieutaud ‘produced very expensive cases for longcase clocks, with beautiful bronzes by Caffiéri’. The present bronzes are attributed to Philippe Caffiéri, who also made the mounts for the Frick and Versailles clocks. Caffiéri, who came from a line of celebrated fondeur-ciselures was the eldest son of Jacques Caffiéri, Sculpteur et ciseleur Ordinaire du Roi. Philippe was received as a maître in 1756 and soon became the earliest and most important bronze maker to work in the Neo-classical style. Other examples of his work can be found in the Musée du Louvre in Paris and Cathedral at Bayeux, the Residenz Museum in Munich, Cleveland Museum of Art and the Getty Museum, Malibu. The movement was made by the eminent Parisian firm of Charles Le Roy, which was referred to in glowing terms in the principal almanacs of the second half of the eighteenth century. The business was run firstly by Charles Le Roy (1709-71) who became a maître in 1733, then in conjunction with his equally brilliant son Etienne-Augustin (b. Paris 1737 d. after 1792) and finally by Etienne-Augustin alone. Charles Le Roy was firstly established at rue des Prêcheurs; then sometime before 1745 moved to rue Saint-Denis. Etienne-Augustin was received as a maître in 1758 and was subsequently appointed Horloger du Roi to King Louis XVI. After his father’s death he remained at rue Saint-Denis and continued to sign his dials ‘Charles Le Roy’. In 1792/95 he sold the concern to Gaspard Cachard, who in acknowledgement styled himself as ‘Cachard, Succr, de Ch. Le Roy’. Given the accepted dating of the case and clock to circa 1770, one must assume that the movement was largely made by Etienne-Augustin, possibly with the assistance of his then elderly father. Certainly by this time the younger was fully acknowledged, especially after his appointment as royal clockmaker. In its earliest days the Le Roy workshop specialised in manufacture of watches but after about 1760 clock production dramatically increased. Their clock cases were made by the leading ébénistes of the day including Lieutaud, Antoine Foullet, Pécourt, François Duhamel and François Goyer. The Caffiéris, Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain, the Osmonds, François Vion, François Rémond, Cottin, Etienne Martincourt, Zaccon, Frémont, Le Mire and E. Blavet were responsible for those in bronze. Elie Barbezat, who also supplied Imbert l’Aîné, J. Le Roy and R. Robin, made a number of the firm’s dials. An inventory of Louis XVI’s clocks, 1788 recorded nine by Charles Le Roy, all in the king’s private apartments at Versailles. A list of clocks belonging to the Menus Plaisirs, 1793, mentioned a tenth clock (accepted as the one now in the J. Paul Getty Museum). In addition to the King, the firm’s clientele included the comte de Provence, Mademoiselle de Clermont and the courts of Sweden and Saxony. Today one can find works by the firm in notable collections including the Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon, Dresden, the Nordiske Museum, Stockholm and in the Feill and Ilbert collections. Further examples are housed in the Musées du Louvre, Cognac-Jay and Jacquemart-André in Paris, the Historisches Museum Basel, the Walters Art Gallery Baltimore, the J. P. Getty Museum, California and the Metropolitan Museum, New York. |