Sèvres porcelain
Provenance
Lionel Nathan de Rothschild (1882-1942), 18 Kensington Palace Gardens, W8; his deceased house sale, Christie's 27-29th April 1942, lot 157, sold for £35.14s (34 guineas) to 'Congreve'. The Congreve family, almost certainly Major John Congreve (1872-1957) for Mount Congreve, Waterford, Ireland.
Literature
Literature: Cedric Jagger, "Royal Clocks", 1983, p. 130, pl. 176, illustrating an almost identical Sèvres beau bleu lyre clock with movement by Dieudonné Kinable and dial by Dubuisson, which was delivered by the Parisian marchand Lafontaine on approval to George IV at Carlton House on 12th October 1828 and subsequently purchased by the king; and p. 131, pl. 178, illustrating another almost identical clock with movement by Jean-Antoine Garrigues, both in the British Royal Collection. Pierre Verlet, "Les Bronzes Dorés Français de XVIIIe Siècle", 1987, p. 41, illustrating a very similar clock which was donated to the Musée du Louvre by S. de Rothschild. Tardy, "Les Plus Belles Pendules Françaises", 1994, p. 81, illustrating an almost identical Sèvres lyre clock with movement by Kinable in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Jean-Dominique Augarde, "Les Ouvriers du Temps", 1996, p. 258, pl. 203, illustrating another Sèvres beau bleu lyre clock with movement by Garrigues and dial attributed to Coteau probably made for the duc d'Orléans (later Philippe-Egalité), with reference to an identical clock with movement by Courieult owned by Louis XVI. Pierre Kjellberg, "Encyclopédie de la Pendule Française du Moyen Age au XXe Siècle", 1997, p. 230, pl. A, illustrating an almost identical bleu turquoise Sèvres porcelain lyre clock with movement by Kinable and pl. B, illustrating another almost identical Sèvres lyre clock with movement by Garrigues and a Coteau dial, in the Musée de Sèvres. Elke Niehüser, "Die Französische Bronzeuhr", 1997, p. 261, pls. 1256-1259, illustrating variations of the present model. Such cases were sold to a number of the leading Parisian clockmakers notably Dieudonné Kinable. The present one is fitted with a movement by Jacques Dubos, who according to Tardy was established in Paris at rue de Gesvres between 1777 and 1778.
An important Louis XVI gilt bronze mounted Sèvres beau bleu porcelain lyre clock bearing the Sèvres mark of two blue interlaced L's, the white enamel dial ring signed Dubos à Paris with Roman and Arabic numerals and an inner calendar ring numbered 1-31 for the days of month with a very fine pair of pierced gilt brass hands for the hours and minutes and blued steel pointers for the sweep centre seconds and calendar indications. The dial with a cut out centre to reveal the skeletonised movement with twin barrels, pinwheel escapement, a bimetallic suspension to the paste gem encrusted beaded pendulum and count wheel strike on a single bell.
The beautiful lyre-shaped case with beaded gilt bronze borders and an applied gilded laurel wreath, surmounted by a fine gilt bronze Apollo mask within a sunburst above a pair of rosettes from which suspend a fruiting swag, with a mock fixed nine rod grid-iron pendulum with a free swinging paste gem pendulum ring, on an stepped elliptical pedestal hung with floral garlands and mounted with rope-twist and stiff-leaf borders on bun feet
Paris, date circa 1785
Height 59.5 cm, width 28 cm, depth 16 cm.
The Sèvres Royal Porcelain Factory began producing lyre clocks from about 1785 although the case shape dates much earlier when in 1724 Jacques Thuret supplied a clock with a carved gilt wood lyre-shaped case to the Académie Française. However, it was not until the later part of the century that such clocks became really fashionable, as one of a number of decorative cases inspired by antiquity. While Sèvres produced them in a variety of colours, from turquoise blue, green and pink, those in beau bleu proved the most popular.
Clocks such as this were made specifically for the elite; thus it is fitting that the present example was once owned by Lionel Nathan de Rothschild (1882-1942) who belonged to the prestigious banking dynasty. He was educated at Harrow and then Cambridge University and was elected M.P for Aylesbury in 1910 - two years before he married Marie Louise Eugénie Beer (1892-1975). When World War I was declared Lionel, as the eldest son of Leopold de Rothschild (1845-1917), remained at home to run the family's bank; he was subsequently joined by his brother Anthony though sadly their brother Evelyn was killed in action, 1917. Though he was a successful businessman Lionel de Rothschild's true passion was in horticulture; he described himself as a banker by hobby and gardener by profession and is best remembered for creating a magnificent garden at his country estate of Exbury in Wiltshire where he developed over a thousand hybrid rhododendron and azaleas. Following his death much of his furniture and works of art from his London home at 18 Kensington Palace Gardens was offered at Christie's. A number of those pieces including the present one were acquired by the Congreve family for their family home Mount Congreve in Waterford, Ireland, which was entirely fitting as Lionel de Rothschild's taste for gilt bronze mounted French works of art had as much influence on the interior of Mount Congreve as his taste in plants and garden design had on the surrounding estate.