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RICHARD REDDING ANTIQUES |
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RICHARD REDDING ANTIQUES |
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A magnificent Louis XVI gilt bronze and white veined red marble table regulator of fourteen day duration, signed on the dial Sotiau à Paris and also Coteau below 6 o’clock and on the reverse, the exquisitely gilt and polychrome painted dial by Joseph Coteau 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 as well as solstice and equinoxe, with a beautiful outer ring with painted images of the twelve signs of the zodiac within oval gilt beaded lozenges interspersed by turquoise jewelled medallions within foliate scrolls, with an extremely beautiful pair of pierced gilt brass hands for the hours and minutes and blued steel pointers for the calendar indications and sweep centre seconds. The movement with knife edge suspension, pin wheel escapement, striking on the hour and half hour on a bell. The elaborately gilt bronze plinth case of rectangular form, glazed on all sides, with a stepped top cast with an anthemion over an egg-and-dart border, the case framed with rods encircled by ribbon motifs with anthemion at each corner, cast below the dial with a pair of outward facing sphinxes hung with a drapery swag above the pendulum aperture revealing the beautiful large gilt bronze pendulum bob cast on both sides with a Medusa head encircled within laurel leaf branches, the stepped plinth with an acanthus border on a rectangular white veined red marble base on bun feet Paris, date circa 1785 Height 44.5 cm, width 29 cm, depth: 22.5 cm. Provenance: Jacques Seligmann, Paris. Mary Stuart Hanna. Her deceased sale, Parke-Bernet, New York, 26th January 1946, lot 63. Acquired by a private collector thence by descent until very recent years. Literature: Tardy, “Les Plus Belles Pendules Françaises”, 1994, p. 201, illustrating a very fine regulator with a very similar enamelled dial by Joseph Coteau, in a comparable gilt bronze case with a movement by the royal clockmaker Robert Robin. Pierre Kjellberg, “Encyclopédie de la Pendule Française du Moyen Age au XXe Siècle”, 1997, p. 312, pl. A, illustrating a skeleton clock with a cut-out dial by Coteau with very similar painted decorations. The importance of this clock not only rests upon the name of its maker Renacle-Nicolas Sotiau (1749-91) but also on the beauty of the jewelled dial executed by the renowned enamellist Joseph Coteau (1740-1801) as well as the splendour of the case. Added to this it was once in the collection of the well respected Paris dealer Jacques Seligmann and then owned by Mary Stuart Hanna, third wife and divorcee of the Cleveland millionaire publisher Dan R. Hanna. According to J-D Augarde: “For ten years [Sotiau] was one of the most famous clockmakers in Paris. Born in Liège, he was received as a Parisian maître-horloger in 1782. Based at rue Saint-Honoré, he held the title of Horloger de Mgr le Dauphin, (Louis XVI’s son). Much of his work was commissioned by the marchands-merciers Dominique Daguerre and François Darnault and were owned by some of the richest and most powerful people of their day, namely Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette as well as Louis XV’s daughters, Mesdames Victoire and Adelaïde, the ducs de Choiseul, de Polignac and de Praslin, the marquise de Brunoy, the marquis de Sérent, the comte de Vaudreuil, the German prince Frédéric Othon de Salm-Kyrbourg and the Prince Regent of England. Today one can find clocks by Sotiau among the world’s greatest collections such as Château de Versailles, the Patrimonio Nacional, Spain, the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, the Huntington Collection, San Marino California and in the British Royal Collection. As one of the best in his field Sotiau only used the very finest dial and case makers, notably Joseph Coteau, who was responsible for the exquisite dial. Coteau originated from Geneva but worked primarily in Paris, where he was established in rue Poupé, St. André des Arts and was received as a maître in 1778. In 1780 he was appointed Peintre-émailleur du roi et de la Manufacture Royale de Sèvres Porcelain and for the next four years did piece-work for Sèvres while also working independently in Paris as a flower painter, specialising in enamelling watchcases and clock dials. By 1784 his production was considerable and though he was in great command he fell out with Sèvres over payments and thus his contract was terminated. He thereafter worked as an independent enamellist supplying the very finest dials, plaques and even fully decorated enamel cases, not only to Sotiau but also Robert Robin, Ferdinand Berthoud and other leading Parisian clockmakers. Coteau does not appear to have enamelled watches or small scale pieces but tended to specialise in larger works which were technically more complex due to shrinkage during firing. A Sèvres document states that he and Parpette (who also worked at the factory) introduced jewelled enamelling - a technique that is shown to great effect here and involved enamelled gold-leaf foils to both soft and hard paste porcelain. Coteau also experimented with various polychromes, producing a blue that was so rare and difficult to perfect that few of his contemporaries managed to copy. |