MUSIC CARTEL AND ITS EARLY CONSOLE OF APPLICATION LOUIS XV BELL RINGING AT THE PASSING OF THE HOURS AND HALFS
Signed (dial and movement), 'Julien Le Roy à Paris', circa 1750
Thirteen-part white enamel dial, Roman numerals for the hours, Arabic numerals for the minutes, cut-out burnished steel hands; rectangular brass movement with two gear bodies, toothed barrels, horizontal verge escapement, wire suspension, external counting wheel, striking on stamp ; violin-shaped case in blackened wood veneered with green-stained horn, decorated with rocaille sconces and gilded bronze inlays of foliage, shells and garlands of flowers, the hat surmounted by a bird hunting in a tree; matching cul-de-lampe concealing a four-area chime with twenty-two hammers playing on twelve timbres controlled by a pitted cylinder, rocket with chain, winged regulator, turned pillars; music triggered on passage or on demand
Dimensions (cartel) :
H. : 100 cm (39 ¼ in.)
l. Width: 47 cm (18 ½ in.)
Dimensions (wall bracket) :
H. : 40 cm (15 ¾ in.)
l. Width : 51 cm (20 in.)
P. : 26,5 cm (10 ½ in.)
Exhibition :
This clock was presented in the exhibition 'La Dynastie des Le Roy, horlogers du Roi' at the Musée des Beaux Arts in Tours, 11 April - 14 June 1987, N° 23 in the catalogue with colour illustration, p.54.
A Louis XV ormolu-mounted and tinted horn musical clock and its wall-bracket, the dial and the movement signed by Julien Le Roy, circa 1750.
Julien Le Roy (1686-1759), one of the master innovators of French watchmaking at the beginning of the 18th century, director of the Société des Arts and according to Cassini '... the most skilful watchmaker we have had in France ...'. Among his most famous pieces are the "Au temps couché" clock (Rothschild Collection, Waddesdon Manor); "Diane and Endymion" (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) and Minerve (Getty Museum), both made in collaboration with Caffieri.