A Louis XVI gilt bronze, enamel and marble skeleton clock, signed Gavelle l’Aîné à Paris – circa 1785
Pierre Gavelle, called Gavelle l’Aîné (1753-1802, maître on 4 September 1771)
Height: 45.5 cm. (18 in.) Width: 28.2 cm. (11 in.) Depth: 13.5 cm. (5 ¼ in.)
The enamelled dial indicates the hours and minutes in Arabic numerals with pierced and engraved gilt brass hands. The circular movement has a recoil anchor escapement and silk thread-suspended sun pendulum and chimes the hours and half-hours by means of a count-wheel mounted on the back-plate.
Provenance
Sold Couturier Nicolay, Hôtel Drouot, 16 December 1981, lot 45
Comparative Literature
A clock of identical form, the eagle replaced by a palmette, is reproduced in Partridge Summer Exhibition 1990, London, Partridge Fine Arts Plc, 1990, cover illustration and no. 40.