A LOUIS XVI ORMOLU, PATINATED BRONZE AND MARBLE MANTEL CLOCK

The present bacchanalian goat motif is one oft-used at the end of the 18th century by the most celebrated bronziers, such as Gouthière and Thomire. The model of the goat as well as the quality of execution and ciselure is reminiscent of a pair of chenets attributed to Gouthière probably realised for the Trianon, which are now in the Swan Collection, The Fine Arts Museum Boston (inv. 27.521.1-2).
However, this clock differs from other models in sculptural nature of the composition as a whole, which is pulsing with life and movement. The female figure lays precariously across the clock movement, which is subtly modelled as a wine barrel, feeding grapes to the clambering goat, as the putto satyr trails behind, each character bracing for balance. A known closely related clock entirely in gilt-bronze, with the female figure holding a tambourine, and with a convex-fronted socle was sold anonymously Sotheby’s London, 8 July 1983, lot 116. A clock similar in theme but more static is composition, dated 1780, was again anonymously sold, Sotheby's, London, 11 December 1981, lot 101, and another clock with a similar female figure, lying back across the barrel is in the collection of the Pavlovsk Palace, Russia, and is illustrated in A. De Gourcuff, Pavlovsk, The Collections, 1993, Paris, p. 184, fig. 7.