An Exceptional Louis XVI Pendule "Au Lion"

The case attributed to the fondeur Violet, after a model by François Vion (maître-fondeur 1764, active until circa 1800) and Pierre-Antoine Foullet (1710 to 1780). The dial signed J. Masson à Paris. Paris, circa 1770.
Finely chased mercury-gilt bronze of exceptional quality, the case recently and carefully cleaned, retaining its original gilding in full depth with fine contrasts of matte and burnished finish throughout.
The rectangular stepped plinth with a fluted frieze and applied rosettes at the angles, the front centred by a finely modelled martial trophy composed of a plumed helmet, cuirass and shield, from which issue naturalistic oak-leaf and laurel garlands trailing along the sides of the base. Below, a portrait medallion of Louis XVI in profile on a blue enamel ground within a laurel wreath. The plinth surmounted by a fully modelled lion in stride, the left foreleg raised, the flowing mane and musculature rendered with remarkable vigour and precision, carrying on its back the drum-shaped clock case. The dial framed by a beaded bezel within a laurel garland surround, the whole crowned by a covered urn hung with ribbon-tied drapery and floral garlands, issuing a flame finial. The reverse fitted with a finely pierced gilt-bronze rosette grille over red silk.

White enamel dial with Roman hours and Arabic five-minute divisions, signed J. Masson à Paris, with a fine pair of pierced and chased gilt hands. Superb-quality Paris movement of eight-day duration, with silk thread suspension and verge escapement, striking the hours and half-hours on a bell with outside countwheel.

Height 39.5 cm, width 26.5 cm, depth 15.5 cm.

The present clock is a particularly accomplished example of one of the most celebrated Parisian "pendules au lion" of the Louis XVI period. The original design, drawing n° 22 from the model register of François Vion, is preserved in the Bibliothèque Doucet in Paris and is published in Ottomeyer and Pröschel (see below). Documented examples of the model include the pendule supplied to Louis-Joseph, Prince de Condé, recorded in the 1779 inventory of the Palais Bourbon as standing in the "cabinet donnant sur la terrasse" and now in the collections of the Ministère des Finances, Paris, as well as a further example preserved at the Palace of Pavlovsk, St Petersburg. A related clock with movement by Jean-Gabriel Imbert l'Aîné, formerly at the Château de la Norville, was sold at Sotheby's Paris, 27 May 2008, lot 162.
François Vion, received maître in 1764, was among the foremost bronziers of his generation and specialised almost exclusively in clock cases, a number of them supported by lions, elephants and other animals. His finest sculptural cases include the "Three Graces" after a design by Étienne-Maurice Falconet, today in the Musée du Louvre, made for the comtesse du Barry. Pierre-Antoine Foullet, ébéniste du Roi and a noted collaborator of the horlogerie trade, is associated with several Transition and early Louis XVI clock cases. The signature Violet, rarely encountered, is recorded on a small number of closely related productions of the period.

Literature:
H. Ottomeyer and P. Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen. Die Bronzearbeiten des Spätbarock und Klassizismus, Munich 1986, vol. I, p. 193, fig. 3.11.4 and 3.11.6 (illustrating an identical pendule "au lion" with case by François Vion, circa 1770, signed Gudin à Paris, made for the Ministère d'État and now at the Ministère des Finances, Paris, together with the original design from the album in the Bibliothèque Doucet).
P. Kjellberg, La pendule française du Moyen Âge au XXe siècle, Paris 1997, pp. 278 to 280 (illustrating analogous examples).
H.L. Tardy, La pendule française des origines à nos jours, Paris 1961 to 1964, vol. III, pp. 234 to 235.
J.D. Augarde, Les ouvriers du temps, Geneva 1996.
E. Niehüser, Die französische Bronzeuhr, Munich 1997.
G. and A. Wannenes, Les plus belles pendules françaises de Louis XIV à l'Empire, Florence 2013.
Fastes du pouvoir.Objets d'exception, XVIIIe et XIXe siècles, Paris, Éditions de la Réunion des Musées nationaux, 2007, pp. 18 to 19, n° 5 (illustrating the example from the collection of the Prince de Condé).