Live Auction 203419th Century Furniture, Sculpture, Works of Art and Ceramics
A BERLIN (K.P.M.) FIGURAL MANTEL CLOCK
Lot 106

A BERLIN (K.P.M.) FIGURAL MANTEL CLOCK

CIRCA 1914-1918, BLUE SCEPTRE, IRON-RED ORB AND BLACK MALTESE CROSS MARKS, THE MOVEMENT STAMPED LENZKIRCH, AOG, U, MILLION, 123, 918995, AND AGUL H5 WITHIN OVAL

Closed21 October 2008

Price Realised

USD 22,500

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A BERLIN (K.P.M.) FIGURAL MANTEL CLOCK
CIRCA 1914-1918, BLUE SCEPTRE, IRON-RED ORB AND BLACK MALTESE CROSS MARKS, THE MOVEMENT STAMPED LENZKIRCH, AOG, U, MILLION, 123, 918995, AND AGUL H5 WITHIN OVAL
In the Art Deco taste, surmounted by a celestial orb supported by four gilt sphinxes, the square clockcase painted with floral bouquets and gilt with anthemion bands, flanked by seated classical figures, possibly Mars and Venus, one showing a child a sword, the other holding the child's hand, a basket of flowers nearby, on a cartouche-shaped base painted with lush flower garlands and raised on four square feet, two molded with busts of a either a warrior or a goddess within octagonal surrounds
33½ in. (85.6 cm.) wide

Specialist note

The central element of the present clock, the star-studded sphere with a calendar ring with the signs of the Zodiac, the whole supported on four sphinxes and standing on the roof of an Egyptian temple, is almost certainly based on a design by Charles Percier and Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine. A watercolor for a closely related Pendule égyptienne à sujets featured as Plate VIII in their engraved pattern-book Recueils de Décorations Intérieures, published in 1801. Compare The Wildenstein Collection, Christies, London, 14 & 15 December 2005. Related clocks with this central element were supplied by to the château de Fontainebleau and to the Grand Trianon at Versailles.