French Empire Mantel Clock Representing Bacchus

Period

ca. 1810

Material

gilt and patinated bronze

Sizes

(height) 40.00cm. (width) 14.00cm. (Length) 28.00cm.

Description

Clockwork with ‘anchor’ escapement and striking train with locking plate. Strikes on a chime every hour and half-hour.

Armingaud l’Ainé worked from the Rue Meslay from 1806 to 1813.

The clock rests on four feathered eagle claws. The oval base is decorated at the front with crossed vines that are held together with a bow.
On the base a representation of a virtually naked Bacchus, who carries a wine cask on his back that houses the clockwork. The pendulum hangs from the bottom of the cask and has a weight in the shape of a butterfly. This butterfly is the symbol of the Horae (hours). The most common representation of Horae are human figures with butterfly wings.

Bacchus carries a thyrsus wound with ivy in his right hand. The thyrsus is topped with a pinecone, representing fertility, due to its many seeds. This is affirmed by the pomegranates in the basket, another fertility symbol.
Bacchus, commonly known as the god of wine, was originally a symbol of fertility. The wings that function here as a support for the cask are commonly not an attribute of Bacchus. They are probably rudimentary, because the mould used for Bacchus was earlier used for a sculpture of Amor.
The moulds were used for many castings, that, with minor alterations served different representations. The same figurine is to be seen on other clocks as Amor, son of Venus.

The eagleclaws are the imperial symbols of Napoleon I (l’Aigle). This most likely dates this clock to the French ‘premier Empire’ (1804-1815).


Literature:
James Hall, Hall’s Iconografisch handboek, Onderwerpen, symbolen en motieven in de beeldende kunst, in de vertaling van Theo Veenhof, 3e gecorrigeerde druk, Leiden 1996.
Hans Ottomeyer en Peter Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, Die Bronzearbeiten des Spätbarock und Klassizismus, München 1986.