STYLE HANGER LOUIS XVI After the model of Étienne Martincourt
In chased and gilded bronze, the dial signed "DELAFONTAINE/FT DE BRONZES/PARIS" inscribed in a vase surmounted by a seed flanked by seated female figures representing the muses Uranie and Clio, resting on a protruding base and an oblong pedestal finished with spinning top feet.
H. 68 cm (26 ¾ in.)
l. W.: 59 cm (23 ¼ in.)
Delafontaine, active bronzier in Paris rue Neuve de l'Abbaye between 1840-1850, then rue Bonaparte in 1860 and rue de l'Université between 1870-1890.
Comparative bibliography :
P.Kjellberg, "Encyclopedie de la Pendule Française du Moyen Age au XXe siècle", les éditions de l'Amateur, Paris, 1997, p.215.
H. Ottomeyer, P.Proschel et al, "Vergoldete Bronzen", Munich, 1986,
Vol. I, p.181, fig. 3.7.10.
A Louis XVI style gilt-bronze mantel-clock, after the model by Etienne Martincourt
The paternity of the design of this clock belongs to Etienne Martincourt (master in 1762). A clock of the same model was delivered by this bronzier around 1775 to King Louis XVI for the salon de Conseil des Tuileries; it is currently in the collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu (cfr. G. Wilson et al. "European Clocks in the J.Paul Getty Museum", Los Angeles, 1996, pp.114-123).
A model comparable to ours from the nineteenth century, part of a mantel set, was sold at Christie's London on June 7, 2016, lot 36.