An alcove clock by Robert Robin

pendule ancienne

**A Directoire gilt and patinated bronze rectangular alcove clock (cartel d’alcôve),**
the dial signed Robin, the movement signed Robin à Paris
circa 1795

Robert Robin (1741-1799), maitre 21 November 1767

Height: 33.5 cm. (13 ¼ in.) Width: 27.5 cm. (10 ¾ in.)

The movement strikes the hours and quarter hours when the cord is pulled.

Provenance :

Fabre gallery, Paris 1988

Comparative Literature

J-D. Augarde, Les Ouvriers du Temps, Geneva, 1996, pp. 391 and 393.

An identical clock case entirely in gilt bronze dating to the end of the Louis XVI period, the dial signed à paris, was sold from the Alexander Collection at Christie’s New York, 30 April 1999, lot 148.

Robert Robin was one of the most important French clockmakers at the end of the 18^th Century. He was appointed Master Horologer to the king and queen and other members of the royal family and was Marie-Antoinette’s favourite clockmaker. She owned no fewer than 23 of his clocks by the time of her 1793 inventory. Robin managed to flourish in the revolutionary and post-revolutionary period, becoming Master Horologer to the Republic and Directory successively in 1794 and 1796 (Augarde, loc. cit.).