A Louis XVI mantel clock representing Urania

A Louis XVI gilt and patinated bronze mantel clock
representing Urania, the dial and movement
signed Leblond l’Ainé à Paris  – circa 1770

Height: 33.8 cm. (13 ¾ in.)    Width: 37.7 cm. (14 ¾ in.)Depth: 15.4 cm. (6 ⅛ in.)

A preparatory drawing for this clock design is no. 10 of a group conserved in the Bibliothèque Doucet, Paris. It indicates that the model belonged to Pierre-Antoine Foullet and that it cost 341 livres without the movement.

Provenance

Collection of Pierre Jourdan-Barry

Comparative Literature

The duc de Choiseul owned a clock of this model which can be seen on the chimney of the Salon of his Paris hôtel particulier in a miniature painted by Nicolas-Louis Van Blarenberghe. The miniature is one of the different interior views of the Duke’s townhouse which adorn the famous Choiseul gold snuff box (illustrated in J. Whitehead, Mobilier et Arts Décoratifs en France au XVIIIème siècle, Editions Atlas, 1992, p. 26).

Another example of this clock is in the Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, illustrated along with the Doucet drawing in H. Ottomeyer & P. Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. I, p. 162, nos. 3.3.6 and 3.3.7.