A LOUIS XVI ORMOLU AND PATINATED BRONZE MANTEL CLOCK

Joseph Léonard Roques or Roque, maître horloger in 1770.

This impressive clock depicts ‘Leda and the Swan’, a story and subject in Greek mythology in which the god Zeus, in the form of a swan, seduces Leda. According to later Greek mythology, Leda bore Helen and Polydeuces, children of Zeus, while at the same time bearing Castor and Clytemnestra, children of her husband Tyndareus, King of Sparta. A popular theme in art history, ‘Leda and the Swan’ features on various late 18th and early 19th century clocks, such as the Charles X malachite clock sold from the collection of Akram Ojjeh, 11 December 1999, lot 103, the Empire clock by Ravrio, sold Christie’s New York, 21 October 2005, lot 412 and the clock by de Verberie, which will be sold from the collection of Dalva Brothers, Christie’s New York, 22 October 2020, lot 174.