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RICHARD REDDING ANTIQUES |
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RICHARD REDDING ANTIQUES |
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An important Louis XIV gilt bronze mounted Boulle brass inlaid red tortoiseshell tête de poupée mantle clock, signed on the white enamel cartouche Gribelin à Paris and also signed on the movement, the circular elaborately cast brass dial with blue Roman numerals on white enamel cartouches and a fine pair of pierced blued steel hands for the hours and minutes. The three train movement with verge escapement, striking the quarters on two bells and the hours on a single bell. The shaped case decorated overall en première partie, with an inverted bell top inlaid with foliate scrolls, surmounted by an orb and books above flaming finials, the body with deeply scrolled sides inlaid below the dial with figures and a deer flanked either side by a tree issuing foliate trails around the dial, on a tapering waist with gadrooned collar above a guilloche border on a domed rectangular plinth inlaid with scrolling foliate strap-work to complement that on the sides, supported on toupie feet Paris, date circa 1700 Height 72 cm, width 29 cm, depth 19 cm. This rare and unusual clock case known as a tête de poupée first emerged during the 1680’s and survived until the 1720’s. Its name derived from its doll’s head-shape, with its sinuous form replacing the angular lines of the pendule religieuse. Whilst some tête de poupée clocks had simple arched-shaped pediments the present example has a more elaborate form, but like similarly styled cases it consists of an oval body with deeply scrolled sides on a spreading moulded plinth. In addition to the richly ornamented mounts, one of the beauties of these cases were their elaborate Boulle inlays - the technique so successfully developed by André Charles Boulle (1642-1732), Ebéniste du Roi. As Boulle is known to have collaborated with Nicolas Gribelin for many of his cases and also made a number of similarly styled clocks, notably The Father Time clock (Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon), it is certainly possible that the present case also came from Boulle’s own workshop. Nicolas Gribelin (1637 d. aft. 1700) is regarded as one of the greatest watch and clockmakers of the seventeenth century. A Protestant convert he was born in Blois 27th November 1637, the son of Abraham Gribelin (1589-1671) Valet de Chambre-Horloger du Roi and Judith Festeau. He was received as a maître-horloger at the Faubourg Saint-Germain-des-Prés and in Paris June 1675. Like his father, Nicolas Gribelin led a distinguished career, becoming garde-visiteur to his guild (1676-78 and 1684-86) and Horloger de Monsieur le Dauphin. By 1682 he was based at rue de Bussy. Gribelin’s productions were of the highest quality, prolific and very much sought after by leading figures of his day. King Louis XIV owned at least one of his clocks (listed in his posthumous inventory), whilst an inventory drawn up in 1689 of the possessions of Louis XIV’s son, the Grand Dauphin (1661-1711) included four clocks made by Gribelin. Gribelin’s pieces were also acquired by some of Louis XIV’s other sons, the duc de Maine and the comte de Toulouse and also by the duc de Bourbon, the maréchal-duc de Villeroy, Antoine Crozat and Nicolas Delaunay. Like other leading makers of his day, Gribelin paid particular attention to the quality of his cases and frequently collaborated with A-C Boulle. He also worked with another important colleague, Balthazar II Martinot (1636-1714) in organizing an interesting lottery, 1695. Three years before he, Balthazar II, Gilles II Martinot and Jacques Langlois attempted to form a partnership with the Abbé d’Hautefeuille. They agreed to pay one ‘louis d’or’ for each clock and watch made according to a process developed by d’Hautefeuille but the enterprise proved fruitless. Today Gribelin’s work is housed in some of the finest private and public collections, notably the Musée du Louvre and Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and Château de Versailles. The Mathematisch-Physikalischer Salon, Dresden; Uhrenmuseum, Wuppertal; the British Museum, London and the Museum of Art, Indianapolis all own other examples from his oeuvre. |