Lot n° 310
Estimation :
20000 - 30000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 48 944EUR
Magnificent clock "vase", all faces in patinated and gilded - Lot 310
Magnificent clock "vase", all faces in patinated and gilded bronze, flanked on both sides by two winged caryatids of women, carrying an arm of light. The body of the vase decorated with a medallion of three children musicians, supported by two griffins surrounded by cherubs and garlands.
Movement with ringing, turning dials visible in a window.
Consulate period.
H. : 62 cm
The two small arms of light, brought back around 1830. We join an arm of two lights which had been brought back in 1830 under the seed of the lid, that we simply dismounted. It is logical to think that on the two other clocks of Galle, the lid is surmounted by an eagle. Talleyrand, former minister, of the Directory, then of the Consulate, then of the Empire, became minister of Louis XVIII, after having presided over the two Restorations, then finally ambassador of Louis-Philippe, wanted to remove the slightly ostentatious signs at that time.
The bronzes attributed to Claude GALLE (1759-1815), one of the greatest bronze founders and chiselers of the 1st Empire, was installed in Paris on the Quai de la Monnaie, then from 1805, on the 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 with the Borghese prince and he furnishes the hotel of Charost bought in 1803. Part of the furniture was sold with the hotel in 1814, and the other part had to be sold at auction on behalf of the princess.
A very similar clock, reputed to come from Pauline Borghese, was sold at the succession of the marquise du LUART on December 5, 1959 at the Charpentier gallery n°40. (Collection of the museum of Baron François Duesberg (Fig. A))
Another clock, without a revolving dial, was offered by the city of Lyon to Napoleon I (Fig. B). It is logical that Talleyrand prince of Benevento owned one, as did Princess Pauline Borghese.
Provenance: see Lot 307.
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