A FRENCH ORMOLU AND PATINATED BRONZE THREE PIECE CLOCK GARNITURE

Mantel clocks incorporating naturalistic modelled figures of rhinoceros, elephants, bulls and lions were highly fashionable in mid-18th Century Paris.
The earliest version is a mantel clock with a rhinoceros base dating before 1747, mentioned in the inventory report of maître-fondeur Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain's wife as deux pendules au rhinoceros l'une pour modèle et l'autre finie prisés...

Three distinct models of Rhinoceros mantel clocks by Saint-Germain are recognized. The first and earliest group after, which the present lot is copied, is based on Dürer's engraving of an Indian rhinoceros from 1515. A second model, probably based on Johann-Joachim Kändler's figure of a rhinoceros, modelled for Meissen in 1747 upon the animal's visit to Dresden, is slightly less stylized with the beast's head rearing. The final model was almost certainly executed during 1749 when a live rhinoceros arrived in Paris and it was available for first hand study. See also: H. Ottomeyer & P. Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, München 1986, vol. II, p. 525, fig. 2.; and P. Kjellberg, Encyclopdie de la Pendule Française, Paris 1997, p. 129, fig. D.