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RICHARD REDDING ANTIQUES |
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RICHARD REDDING ANTIQUES |
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A rare Louis XVI gilt bronze mounted black and white marble mantle clock of eight day duration signed on the dial Lépine à Paris, the white enamel dial with Arabic numerals and a fine pair of pierced brass hands set with pastes brilliants for the hours and minutes and with two subsidiary dials, one below 12 o’clock showing the days of the week and another above 6 o’clock showing the 31 days of the month. The magnificent case with free swinging dial acting as the pendulum, set within a paste brilliants bezel suspended from a ribbon-tied paste brilliants tie attached to the gilt mounted black marble column surmounted by a gilt mounted white marble vase filled with gilded foliage and paste brilliant flowers, the clock and column flanked either side by white marble figures of Minerva and Hope, Minerva wearing a long tunic and plumed helmet and holding a gilded laurel wreath and Hope in a diaphanous dress gathered below her breasts and holding in her left hand an anchor, the whole on a shaped gilt mounted black and white marble base on turned feet Paris, date circa 1790 Height 76 cm, width 60 cm. The case represents Minerva also known as Pallas Athene, who was one of the twelve Olympian gods and protected many Greek cities, notably Athens, which bears her name. She was the daughter of Jupiter and sprang fully armed from his head and is usually portrayed in art wearing a helmet and either holding a spear or as here a palm frond. A virgin goddess who refused to marry she was also a warrior-goddess and participated in the god’s battle against the giants. Due to her conquests she is often associated with Victory but is here seen opposite the personification of Hope, who with Faith and Charity was one of the three virtues and is sometimes shown in art holding an anchor. The clock itself was made by the royal clockmaker Pierre-Claude Raguet, known as Raguet-Lépine (1753-1810), who was in many respects as successful and as illustrious as his father-in-law Jean-Antoine I Lépine (1720-1814) with whom he worked in close association and whose business he succeeded in 1784. Born in Dôle, Pierre-Claude married Jean-Antoine’s daughter Pauline in 1782, having already invested 16,000 livres in his future father-in law’s business, he then purchased a third share in 1783 and finally took over the business in June 1784 under the name of Lépine à Paris, Horloger du Roi and either signed his clock dials as such or simply as here without reference to the king. Prior to this he had worked as a compagnon to Jean-Antoine I Lépine and then in 1785 was received as a maître. Lépine-Raguet not only became prosperous from his clock productions but also dealt in diamonds and precious stones. His clocks and watches were of the highest quality and as such were supplied to the cream of society, including the comte de Provence and Louis XV’s daughters at Château de Bellevue. He was also a member of the jury responsible for deciding upon a new Republican time system (1793); during the Empire he was appointed Horloger breveté de Sa Majesté l’Impératrice-Reine, 1805 and four years later was titled clockmaker to Impératrice Joséphine while his other clientele included Napoleon I, Jérôme King of Westphalia, Charles IV King of Spain, the princes Talleyrand, Kourakine (the Russian Ambassador) and Schwarzenberg (the Austrian Ambassador). Such was his success that he needed a large workforce which included a number of his relatives including Jean-Antoine II Lépine, who managed the workshop as well as Jean-Louis Lépine in Geneva and Jacques Lépine in Kassel, Germany. His cases were supplied leading bronziers of the period including P.-P. Thomire and by other leading bronziers such as F. Rémond, F. Vion, E. Martincourt, the Feuchères and Duports while his dials were supplied by such fine enamellists as Coteau, Dubuisson, Cave, Merlet and others. Today Raguet-Lépine’s work can be admired in such collections as the Musée du Louvre, Château de Compiègne, the British Royal Collection, Musée International d’Horlogerie at La Chaux-des-Fonds, Deutsches Uhrenmuseum Furtwangen, Schloss Wilhemshöhe Kassel, the Patrimonio Nacional in Spain, the Hermitage Saint Petersburg as well as the Detroit Institute of Arts and Minneapolis Institute of Arts. |