A late Louis XV ormolu columnar clock by Osmond by 1770

Robert and Jean-Baptiste Osmond
A Late Louis XV ormolu column Clock
The cabinet of finely chased and gilded bronze, unsigned
The dial signed Hennequin à Paris
Paris, circa 1770

Bibliography: This clock is reproduced and discussed in the following publications:
- Hans Ottomeyer and Peter Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, p. 194, pl. 3.12.3, depicting an identical clock at the Royal Palace in Stockholm.
- Pierre Kjellberg, Encyclopédie de la Pendule Française du Moyen Âge au XXe Siècle, Éditions de l’Amateur, Paris, 1997, p. 185, color illustration of a column clock in gilded bronze signed Osmond with a movement by Louis Montjoye.
- Elke Niehüser, Die Französische Bronzeuhr, Callwey, Munich, 1997, p. 252, pl. 1091
- Peter Hughes, French Fashion at Petworth, Apollo, September 2008, p. 63, pl. 5

This eight-day movement clock, housed in a cabinet shaped like a truncated column, is a quintessential example of Parisian Neoclassical production from the 1760s–1770s. The whole ensemble, in finely chased and gilded bronze, is attributed to the workshop of Robert Osmond (1711–1789) and his nephew Jean-Baptiste Osmond (b. 1742), leading figures among Parisian bronziers during the stylistic revival marking the end of Louis XV’s reign.

The circular enamel dial, signed by the clockmaker Hennequin, shows the hours in Roman numerals and the minutes in intervals of five in Arabic numerals. It is accompanied by two pierced gilded bronze hands. The mechanism features a recoil anchor escapement, a countwheel striking on a silvered bell (hours and half-hours), and a silk suspension.

The composition centers around a fluted column topped with a vase adorned with Greek key motifs and festoons, crowned by a bursting pomegranate. The dial is framed by an elegant laurel garland with a corded twist, held by a ribbon knot. The square base, outlined with a laurel torus, contributes to the architectural balance of the piece.

This model is documented in the Recueil de desseins. Modèles de pendules, 1755–1780, a manuscript now held at the INHA Library (Doucet collection). It appears there in three variants (drawings no. 51, 56, and 81), reflecting the importance of this typology in the Osmonds’ work. Their desire to protect their designs led them to sign a declaration before the Paris Parliament in 1766, aimed at regulating the protection of bronziers’ models.

The truncated column form, likely inspired by the work of architect and designer Jean-Charles Delafosse (1734–1791), became an iconic motif of early Neoclassicism. It symbolized the emerging taste for Greek Revival in French decorative arts, as diplomat Melchior von Grimm noted as early as 1763 in his Correspondances littéraires: "In recent years, antique ornaments and forms have been sought after […] everything in Paris is à la grecque."

This model was so successful that it was soon adapted, notably by the Royal Porcelain Manufactory of Sèvres, which offered a hard-paste porcelain version as early as 1772. One example dated 1775 is held in the British Royal Collection. While the Osmonds' involvement in this adaptation is undocumented, the aesthetic lineage is unmistakable.