 |
RICHARD REDDING ANTIQUES |
 |
|
|
RICHARD REDDING ANTIQUES |
|
|
A rare Louis XV gilt bronze mounted green-horn wall clock with bracket of eight day duration, the movement by Louis Lieutaud, signed on the central white enamel signature plaque Lieutaud à Marseilles and similarly so on the movement and also numbered 280, the case by Adrien Dubois, signed on the base A. Dubois, the foliate-cast gilt dial with individual enamel cartouches, showing inner blue Roman and outer black Arabic numerals, with a fine pair of brass hands for the hours and minutes, the hour hand with a fleur-de-lis pointer. The spring driven going rectangular movement striking on the hour and half hour on a single bell, with a fine one-piece numbered count wheel. The magnificent waisted serpentine domed case with scrolled gilt bronze banding surmounted by a seated Chinaman wearing a hat and holding a parasol in his left hand, the waisted glazed pendulum aperture below the dial in front of which is a gilt bronze winged dragon amid scrolls, on scrolling foliate feet and a waisted bracket with scroll cast banding and centred by a Chinaman’s head and shell motifs, the angles with foliate scrolls above a scrolled terminal Paris, date circa 1750 The clock: Height 57 cm, width 29 cm, depth 13.5 cm. The bracket: Height 23 cm, width 30.5 cm, depth 17 cm. The maker of the movement for this exceptionally fine bracket clock was Louis Lieutaud who was appointed a syndic of his guild between 1730-32. Lieutaud belonged to a family of clockmakers from Marseilles including an uncle and nephew both named Honoré. He may also have been related to the slightly younger clockmaker Jean-Joseph (maître 1769) who worked in Paris. For it was in Paris that this magnificent case was made, the base of which is signed by the ébéniste Adrien Dubois. Dubois worked in the rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine, where he was appointed foreman or assistant in the important workshop founded by Bernard I Vanrisamburgh (maître before 1722. d. 1738). The latter who came from Holland, was the father and grandfather respectively of the acclaimed Bernard II and III who characteristically used the stamp of BVRB. Bernard I was slightly unusual in that he gave up making furniture in order to specialize in clock cases. Among them were bracket, mantle and longcase clocks, predominantly decorated with Boulle marquetry. As his assistant, Dubois lived under the same roof as he, his wife and children. When Bernard I died in 1738 his workshop contained a number of finished clocks as well as 117 clock carcasses as well as 15 pedestals and 60 clock brackets. He also died owing Dubois 400 livres. In January 1741, three years after his employer’s death Adrien Dubois was received as a maître ébéniste; he is credited with making a number of chairs as well as a console table in Boulle marquetry now in the Jones Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London as well as clock cases, including those with Boulle marquetry. Such decoration was very fashionable until about 1830 and was in part succeeded by green-horn. What is particularly interesting is that the present case is almost identical to another housing a movement by the esteemed maker Julien Le Roy (1686-1759), which was sold by this gallery and is illustrated in “Richard Redding Antiques 25th Anniversary”, 2002, p. 255. Since the mounts on the latter clock are stamped with a C-couronné poinçon we can narrow its date to between 1745-49 (due to a tax which required all bronzes made during this period to bear such a stamp). The mounts and overall shape are typical of the Rococo style which took much of its inspiration from the East, particularly China. The dragon was a popular motif in China since it was regarded as first of all animals and thus came to symbolize masculinity, light, growth and life-giving water and also represented nobility and royalty. |