A Directoire skeleton clock signed Bourdier

A Directoire gilt bronze, polychrome, blue and gold enamel and griotte marble skeleton clock
signed BOURDIER, the dial with date indication signed by the enameller Dubuisson – 1795-1799

Height: 45 cm. (17 ¾ in.)            Width: 28 cm. (11 in.)            Depth: 13.2 cm. (5 ¼ in.)

Jean-Simon Bourdier (d. Paris, 26 June 1839), maître on 22 September 1787

Dubuisson (1731 – after 1820)

 The annular enamelled dial bearing the signature, with Roman numerals indicating the hours and Arabic numerals for the quarter hours with pierced and engraved gilt brass hands, and Arabic numerals indicating the date with a blued steel hand. The circular movement has a pinwheel escapement and silk thread suspension of the large sunburst pendulum. The clock chimes the hours and half hours by means of a count-wheel mounted on the back plate.

The dial is surmounted by a large palmette which rests on trailing ears of corn and vine branches. Supporting the dial and seated on the arches, two triton children blow horns. Between them is a dark blue enamelled oval panel with the signature of the clockmaker. The arches, knurled with a wheel, rest on four rectangular pedestals decorated at the front with two enamelled plaques representing gorgons on a turquoise blue ground encircled with green spangles and pearls. The rectangular base in griotte marble is highlighted by an applied rectangular frieze of flower scrolls with eagle heads and rests on five turned feet.

Comparative Literature

A similar clock signed Simon Roy is reproduced in the Partridge Summer Exhibition catalogue, 1990, no. 40.