Lot n° 298
Estimation :
30000 - 40000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 39 284EUR
Important and sumptuous clock in gilded bronze all faces. - Lot 298
Important and sumptuous clock in gilded bronze all faces.
The reader represented, by a woman standing, dressed in a dress draped in the antique, leaning on an antique terminal, the arm must indicate the time in a window. The base of the pillar decorated with winged griffins at the corners.
The round base resting on four flattened bronze balls, is in red griotte marble, decorated all around with a gilt bronze frieze representing ancient scenes alternated with pilasters and palm trees.
The original striking movement, with some restorations, has a rotating dial.
Empire period, around 1810.
H. : 79 cm - D. : 37 cm.
The nut of the book clamp to be restored, the tip of the middle finger is missing and a frieze on the base at the back. The original movement to be revised.
The bronzes attributed to Claude GALLE (1759-1815), one of the greatest bronze founders and chiselers of the 1st Empire was installed in Paris quai de la Monnaie, then from 1805, rue Vivienne where he employed nearly 400 people. He often collaborated with THOMIRE. It is GALLE who will carry out the main imperial orders for the palaces of Compiègne, Saint Cloud, the Tuileries, the Trianon... He will also deliver some Italian palaces, including that of Pauline Bonaparte by her marriage to Prince Borghese. He actively participated in the furnishing of the Hôtel de Charost, which he bought in 1803.
An identical clock, the only one known, has been preserved since the beginning in the large green room of the Hôtel de Charost. Commissioned in 1810 by Princess Pauline Borghese, sister of Napoleon I, for her hotel in the rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré, this monumental clock is of magnificent quality of execution. Considering the suppliers of the palaces of her brother the emperor Napoleon I, one can legitimately think that this clock is by GALLE.
This clock has never left the mantelpiece of this salon since 1810. In 1814, Pauline Borghese resides in Naples, sells the hotel (500.000 F gold) and part of its furniture (300.000 F gold) to the Duke of Wellington on behalf of King George III of Great Britain.
At present and since 1814 it is the residence of the ambassador of Great Britain, rue du Faubourg Saint Honoré, close to the Elysée Palace which was the property of Prince Murat, husband of Caroline Bonaparte sister of Pauline Borghese and Napoleon I... (Reproduced in the 2nd volume of the French Clock, Tardy, p.288.
Provenance of ours:
- Probably Charles-Maurice de TALLEYRAND PERIGORD, prince of BENEVENT, for his hotel on the rue Saint Florentin in Paris. But perhaps ordered for his castle of Valençay, and delivered for the stay during the "forced residence" of king Ferdinand IV of Spain and his suite from 1808 to 1814, it is another possibility.
- Probably his nephew General Alexandre-Edmond de TALLEYRAND PERIGORD, who married Dorothée von BIRON, princess of COURLANDE, a marriage concluded by the diplomacy of his uncle Charles-Maurice, prince of BENEVENT with the permission of the Tsar of Russia. Dorothée de COURLANDE, rich heiress, was the mistress of her uncle Charles-Maurice de TALLEYRAND
- Their son, Louis, duke of TALLEYRAND PERIGORD who will become the heir of the minister. He married Alix de MONTMORENCY, daughter of the duke of MONTMORENCY and Caroline de GOYON MATIGNON, granddaughter of the baron de BRETEUIL, minister of Louis XVI.
- His son, Hélie, duke of TALLEYRAND PERIGORD, the clock then in the castle of MARAIS.
- His daughter, Violette de TALLEYRAND PERIGORD, duchess of SAGAN at the castle of MARAIS.
- And by descent...
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