Offered by Tobogan Antiques
Signed on the dial A. Beurdeley Paris
Mechanism signed J LEFEBVRE FILS PARIS
Rare Louis XVI style clock in gilded and patinated chiseled bronze and white marble. In the form of an arched pediment, it is decorated with four Cupids, two carrying a garland of flowers highlighting the dial, and two others symbolizing the coronation of Science. The molded base in white marble, with a double recess, is decorated with a ribboned torus, a frieze of ribboned oak leaves and interlacing, and rests on six flattened ball feet.
Related work :
In 1774, the bronze-caster Robert Osmond (1711-1789) designed a first model known as “architectural drawing” illustrating The Coronation of Science. Also called The Children of France, it is decorated with a putti crowning a young girl drawing with a compass and delivered to Versailles by Lépine, clockmaker to the King since 1762, for the apartment of Madame Royale in the Princes’ Wing, on December 28, 1778. (see photo attached)
This clock is described in the inventory of Versailles clocks from 1787, in the Clock Cabinet of the King’s apartments at Versailles : « 1. Une pendule de cheminée à chapiteau en bronze doré d’or moulu portée sur socle de marbre noir garni de frises à a grecque, les ornements de cette boette sont désignés par deux enfants assis sur l’entablement portant le chapiteau en forme de support, surmontée de deux génies dont l’un est couronné par l’autre, h. de 19 po. Sur 19 po ? 9 l. de large, par Charles Le Roy »
This clock is inspired by the plate 77 of Osmond’s collection of drawings entitled : Pièce à portail grande Architecture avec 1 génie, vers 1775 (see photo attached).
Another version of this clock by the bronze-caster Osmond, described as a cartonnier clock and closer to the model executed by Beurdeley, and reproduced in Vergoldete Bronzen P. Pröschel and H. Ottomeyer, Munich 1986, vol. I, page 229, fig. 4. 1. 9., is kept at the Musée Jacquemart André (see photo attached).
Biography :
In 1875, Alfred-Emmanuel Beurdeley (1847-1919) was at first assistant to and later succeeded his father Louis-Auguste Beurdeley, one of the main cabinet-makers of the Second Empire, specialising in XVIIIth century furniture. Louis-Auguste was the star whenever he exhibited and was “most favored by the royal and imperial families”. Although he produced the same kind of works of art as his father, Alfred Beurdeley was also a very well-known art collector and a skilled bronze sculptor. With Dasson, Grohé, Sauvresy and Fourdinois, the most famous artists of the period, he took part in the 1878 Universal Exhibition and won the gold medal. Crowned with glory he went so far as to open a shop in New York. His participation in the 1883 Amsterdam Universal Exhibition drew considerable attention to his work and “Alfred Beurdeley, Fabricant de bronzes d’art” was then awarded the Ordre National de la Legion d’Honneur, France’s hightest official mark of recognition. He thus won the respect of both the government and contemporary art critics. His last presentation was during the 1889 Universal and International Exhibition, when the director of the Exhibition wrote in his report : “The talent of Mr Beurdeley is self evident when one inspects his furniture.”
