Une pendule à cassolette

A Louis XVI gilt bronze and bleu turquin marble mantel-clock,
the case attributed to Lemoyne, the dial signed Robin – circa 1780

Jean-Jacques Lemoyne, maître fondeur-ciseleur 28 March 1772
Robert Robin (1741-1799), maître horloger 21 November 1767

Height: 65 cm. (25 ½ in.)     Width: 51.5 cm. (20 ¼ in.)    

Depth: 19.7 cm. (7 ¾ in.)

Comparative Literature

P.Verlet, Les bronzes dorés français du XVIIIe siècle, Paris, 1987, p. 313, no. 344.

J-D. Augarde, Les Ouvriers du Temps, Geneva, 1996, p. 262, fig. 205.

The design for these clocks is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (fig. 1). Interestingly, this gilt bronze case is attributed to the fondeur Jean-Jacques Lemoyne by Augarde (op. cit., p. 262). Lemoyne lived in the rue Princesse and worked most notably for the comte de Montmorency-Laval.

Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette, the Comte de Provence, and Mesdames Victoire and Adélaïde all owned clocks of this model.

Augarde (op. cit, fig. 205) illustrates an identical clock, also with a bleu turquin marble base and movement by Robin which was confiscated from the Marquis de Sérent, governor to the Comte d’Artois’ children.

Another identical one, the dial signed Robin, horloger du Roi à Paris, is in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris. Verlet, (op. cit., no. 344), cites another identical model, also with a movement by Robin, which was described in the inventory of clocks owned by Marie-Antoinette (inv. 38).

Further identical models signed by Robin include:

• Sold Christie’s New York, 18 May 1989, lot 61 (bleu turquin marble, the dial signed Robin Hr du Roy, the enamel Coteau 1785)
• Sold Sotheby’s New York, 9 June 2014, lot 76 (bleu turquin marble, the dial signed Robin aux galeries du Louvre).
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Robert Robin (1741-1799), maitre on 21 November 1767

Robin belongs to a very small group of clock-makers whose innovations and work made significant contributions to the development of the measurement of time. He was Marie-Antoinette’s favorite clock-maker; the 1793 inventory of her collections lists no fewer than 23 clocks by him. In the course of his career, he accumulated an exceptional number of titles and positions with the Royal family and subsequently with the Revolutionary governments:

                           Marchand-Horloger Privilégié du Roi 1763

                           Horloger du duc de Chartres 1778

                           Valet de Chambre-Horloger Ordinaire du Roi 1783

                           Valet de Chambre-Horloger Ordinaire de la Reine 1786

                           Horloger de Monsieur 1785

                           Horloger de la République 1794

                           Horloger du Directoire 1796