A Louis XVI Paris biscuit porcelain Caryatid mantel clock

A Louis XVI gilt bronze and Paris biscuit porcelain mantel clock 
in the form of a Caryatid after the Antique – circa 1785-1790 

The porcelain 18th Century 

Height: 63.5 cm. (25 in.)    Diameter of base: 20 cm. (8 in.)

The circular movement is contained with a case held aloft with both hands by a caryatid. It has an anchor escapement and silk thread suspension and strikes the hours and half hours by means of a count-wheel on the backplate. The circular enamel dial indicates the hours with Arabic numerals with pierced and engraved gilt brass hands.

 

Provenance

Vicomtesse de Courval, Paris

 

Comparative Literature

An identical clock with a replaced movement was sold at Sotheby’s Monaco, 22 June 1986, lot 401. The form of this clock derives from the biscuit figures created by Louis-Simon Boizot (1743-1809) for the Sèvres Porcelain Factory, circa 1785, notably the pair of candelabra formerly in the collection of Léon Lévy, sold Sotheby’s Paris, 2 October 2008, lot 48 which is illustrated and discussed by C. Baulez, ‘Les bronziers Gouthière, Thomire et Rémond’, in Louis-Simon Boizot: (1743-1809): Sculpteur du roi et directeur de l’atelier de sculpture à la Manufacture de Sèvres, exh. cat. Musée Lambinet, Versailles, 2001, pp. 278-279, fig. 1. The model was then subsequently adapted circa 1798 by the bronzier, François Rémond, as a clock of the same form as this one with the case supported on the caryatid’s head (op. cit. p. 292, fig. 15).