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RICHARD REDDING ANTIQUES |
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RICHARD REDDING ANTIQUES |
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A rare and highly important gilt bronze Louis XVI mantle regulator of month duration, the complex movement with equation of time, annual calendar, astrological signs, strike, a fully compensated pendulum and remontoire by the royal clockmaker Robert Robin, the exquisite polychrome dial by Joseph Coteau and case attributed to the pre-eminent fondeur-ciseleur Pierre-Philippe Thomire. The dial signed Robin Hger du Roy and similarly so on the backplate and also Coteau on the dial below 6 o’clock, bearing later inscriptions on the movement: SDLX juin 1822/ Gerard Boilard à Paris Octobre 1974. The beautiful painted white enamel dial with Roman and Arabic numerals for the hours and minutes, a calendar ring with the names of months and their relevant days 10/20/28, 30 or 31, with a beautiful outer ring with painted images of the twelve signs of the zodiac within oval gilt beaded lozenges interspersed by jewelled and foliate scrolls, with an extremely beautiful pair of pierced gilt brass hands for the solar hour and minute indications, the hour hand with a sunburst and arrow pointer, the minute hand with a cut-off fleur-de-lis pointer, a blued steel arrow headed pointer for the mean time and plain blued steel pointers for the calendar indications and for the sweep centre seconds. The superb movement with equation of time, with remontoire re-wound via Robin’s pulley system mounted onto the backplate applying a constant force to the Graham dead-beat escapement, the long crutch arm with fine adjustment for the beat, slotting on to the magnificent and massive free-swinging nine-rod fully compensated pendulum composed of four rectangular brass rods and alternate five polished steel rods being gradually splayed toward the top, with a massive brass bob with fine adjustment terminating with a steel beat pointer, the pendulum with knife edge suspension secured by screws onto a brass plate set into the rear of the case and an L-shaped brass bracket secured to the brass plate and clock case by steel screws, allowing the pendulum suspended from the top of the bracket to swing free from the movement, striking on the solar hour and half hour on a single bell and inscribed on the dial plate Remonté à gauche above 12 o’clock and Remonté/ à gauche below the two winding holes situated on the dial plate below 7 and 5 o’clock. The wonderful gilt bronze plinth case attributed to Pierre-Philippe Thomire of rectangular form, glazed on all sides with a stepped top, the channelled frame ornamented with stiff leaf borders, cast within the glazed front door with a beaded dial bezel, foliate scrolled spandrels to the upper corners and hung below with a drapery swag Paris, dated circa 1785 Height 42.8 cm, width 23.7 cm, depth 19 cm. Literature: Winthrop Kellogg Edey, “French Clocks in North American Collections”, The Frick Collection exhibition catalogue, November 1982 – January 1983, p. 88-90, illustrating and describing an almost identical but later Robert Robin clock of 1792 probably made for Queen Marie-Antoinette, now in the permanent Frick Collection. Tardy, “Les Plus Belles Pendules Françaises”, 1994, p. 136, illustrating a Robin mantle regulator with strike in a similar gilt bronze case. And pp. 139 and 141, illustrating two similar mantle clocks by Robert Robin with polychrome painted dials with signs of the zodiac, housed in slightly different gilt bronze cases. Jean-Dominique Augarde, “Les Ouvriers du Temps”, 1996, p. 392, pl. 286, illustrating a similar regulator by Robin of circa 1786-89 with polychrome zodiac dial and equation but housed in a mahogany case and signed aux Galeries du Louvre. Derek Roberts, “Precision Pendulum Clocks, France, Germany, America and Recent Advancements”, 2004, p. 32-33, pl. 26-7A-C, illustrating a similar Robin mantle regulator circa 1778 signed Robin à Paris on the Coteau dial and bob with a painted enamel plaque. And pp. 33- 36, pls. 26-8A-J, illustrating another similar but smaller and less sumptuous Robin mantle regulator with case attributed to Pierre-Philippe Thomire, signed Robin Hger de Monsieur on the much plainer dial and signed and dated Robin aux Galeries du Louvre Paris 1788 on the backplate. |