A DIRECTOIRE ORMOLU AND PATINATED BRONZE STRIKING MANTEL CLOCK

The design for this clock is inspired by a drawing executed circa 1785 and attributed to the celebrated ciseleur-doreur François Rémond, (H. Ottomeyer and P. Pröschel et. al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, vol. I, p. 295, fig. 4.17.5.) The two seated figures derive from models of 'L'Etude' and 'La Philosophie' created for the Sèvres factory by Louis-Simon Boizot in 1780. The marchand-mercier Dominique Daguerre commissioned Rémond to design the clock to incorporate Boizot's figures (C. Baulez, 'La Pendule à la Geoffrin', L'Estampille, 4 (1989), pp. 39-41. In 1788 Daguerre supplied two clocks of this model to Louis XVI for the Château de St. Cloud (P. Verlet, Les Bronzes Dorés Français du XVIIIème siècle, Paris, 1987, p. 322, fig. 357).