Louis XVI Ormolu Mantel Clock

Period

ca. 1775

Material

gilded bronze

Sizes

(height) 65cm. (width) 19cm. (Length) 51cm.

Description

Eight day clockwork with going train and striking train. The dial show minutes, hours and dates.

Jean-Joseph Lieutaud (?-1791), recorded Maître-Horlogier of the Parisien clockmaker guild in 1767, worked from the Rue de Bucy from 1767 to 1790. After that time until his death in 1791 he worked from the Rue Guénégaud.

The wide base, that is decorated with acanthus, has a protruding center part, that is decorated with leafed vines and flowering sprigs held together with a bow. The part around the clock is elaborately decorated. The clock is topped by a cassolette or incense burner on a tripod of ram’s heads and goatlegs.

The sunflowers (of marigolds ?) and the rose are symbols of love and devotion.
A comparabel mantel clock topped with a cassolette is to be seen in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. That mantelclock with a clockwork of Robin and on a blue marble base, stems from the property of Louis XVI. Another one, with a white marble base, is to be found in the collection of the Swedish Royal family in Stockholm.
A sketch of this model of mantel clock is to be found in the collection Esmerian in the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

The dial is signed; Lieutaud à Paris, the back of the clockwork is signed and numbered; Lieutaud à Paris 1515.