Lot n° 83
Estimation :
18000 - 20000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 31 200EUR
Exceptional neoclassical mantel clock in... - Lot 83 - Coutau-Bégarie
Exceptional neoclassical mantel clock in Alsatian green porphyry and very finely chased, patinated and gilded bronze. The rectangular base with rounded ends and a wide doucine is adorned with two muses supporting the movement in an octagonal frame, surmounted by Apollo playing the lyre seated on a cloud. The enamelled dial, with Roman numerals for the hours, Arabic numerals for the quarters and a railway for the minutes, is signed Robin Fils.
Louis XVI period, attributed to François Rémond (circa 1747-1812).
Height : 71 cm - Width : 56 cm - Depth : 19 cm
(Accident to the dial)
Our clock, by its size, quality of workmanship and above all the use of rare Alsatian green porphyry, is most likely a prestigious commission.
The model of our clock is generally attributed to François
Rémond, and the same mascarons can be found on the famous "à l'étude" clock marketed by Daguerre from 1784, a copy of which is preserved at the Château de Versailles.
A clock of the same design, but in white marble, is also known.
The craze for objects mounted in granite, onyx, porphyry and other hard stones, which peaked in the second half of the eighteenth century in France, encouraged the administration, particularly that of the Menus-Plaisirs, placed under the authority of the Château de Versailles.
Menus-Plaisirs under the authority of the Duc d'Aumont, to prospect among the kingdom's marble resources in order to limit the importation of Italian specimens.
Fortunately discovered in 1768, the marble deposits in the
Vosges marble deposits were soon exploited by royal factories, such as the one in Remiremont, to produce granite, also known as green or ashy porphyry, or green serpentine; the stones cut in this way were then sold in Paris through the Magasin ou Dépôt des Ouvrages en roches, made up of granite, granitelle, jasper, serpentine and porphyry.
In 1774, architect François-Joseph Bélanger, a close collaborator of the Duc d'Aumont, wrote a work on ancient marbles, associated with a draft treatise on soft marbles and those we possess, in which he shows that we have in our provinces some of the marbles that the Greeks and Romans fetched from Upper Egypt, and that porphyry and granite are found in Alsace, that we possess immense quarries and that this material is perfectly of the same nature as that of which we have ancient fragments.
The Duc d'Aumont's own niece, the Duchesse de Mazarin, also owns one of the main marble deposits in the Vosges, Giromagny.
Vosges, Giromagny; from this quarry may have come the serpentine for her uncle's two vases, mounted by Pierre Gouthière and later acquired by Louis XVI in 1782 (now in the Louvre).
Proof of their commercial success, Vosges marbles are sometimes the subject of specialized sales, such as those organized by Jean-
Baptiste Feuillet, sculptor-marble-maker, and the merchant Jean-Baptiste- Pierre Lebrun.
Pierre Lebrun, notably the so-called Du Pereux sale on March 23, 1784: "Catalogue of a valuable collection of Alsatian marbles, such as porphyry, granite, serpentine, etc., composed of vases of various forms such as bowls, basins and column shafts, many mounted in matt gold bronze and others ready to be gilded, executed on beautiful profiles and models by M. Feuillet.
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