A DIRECTOIRE ORMOLU AND PATINATED BRONZE CLOCK ‘L’AFRIQUE’

Exoticism was still en vogue at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century as evidenced by a series of clocks in reference to a whole literature whose main threads are Rousseau, Bernardin de Saint Pierre and Chateaubriand. The present lot, an allegory of Africa, is inspired by the signed and dated drawing Deverberie No.12 Deverberie due trois Pluvoise an Sept (1799), preserved in the Cabinet des Estampes, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (H. Ottomeyer, P. Pröschel et al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, Vol. I, p. 381, fig. 5.15.28). Some variants are also known, including a clock modeled as the same huntress flanked by a leopard, but resting on an arched base.

Jean-Simon Deverberie also acted as a marchand-mercier and by 1800 was established at rue Barbet in Paris; four years later he was at Boulevard du Temple and from 1812 until 1824 his business, Deverberie & Compagnie, was based at rue des Fosse du Temple.