A Louis XVI white marble vase clock with aquatic motifs

A Louis XVI gilt bronze-mounted white marble vase clock
after a design by Beaucour,  the dial signed A Paris – circa 1780

Height: 45.5 cm. (18 in.)    Width: 23 cm. (9 in.)    Depth: 16 cm. (6 ¼ in.)
Base: 16 cm. (6 ¼ in.) square

The clock is conceived as a fountain flanked by upturned dolphins spouting jets of water framed by bulrushes.

This clock illustrates perfectly the inventiveness of the French bronziers of the 18th Century. The design for this one is signed by Beaucour who also stamped different clock cases and is N° 100 in an album preserved in the Bibliothèque Jacques Doucet in Paris.

Comparative Literature

An identical clock signed Tavernier à Paris is discussed and illustrated in colour in P. Kjellberg, L’Encyclopédie de la pendule française du Moyen Age à nos jours, Paris : Editions de l’Amateur, 1997, p. 214, fig. A.