A Louis XV gilt-bronze mantel clock by Gudin l'aîné

Jacques Jérome Gudin, known as Gudin the Elder (1732–1805)
A Louis XV mantel clock
Chased and gilded bronze
Signed Gudin à Paris on the dial and on the reverse of the movement
Jacques Jérome Gudin, clockmaker, admitted master in 1750
Paris, circa 1750

This Louis XV period clock is distinguished by the exceptional quality of its case, executed entirely in chased and gilded bronze. Its fully asymmetrical Rocaille decoration is surmounted by a mascaron. This ornamental vocabulary, composed of flowing curves and counter-curves, shells, and jagged foliage, is closely related to the work of the designer and goldsmith Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier.

The author of these bronzes may have been the bronzier and goldsmith Jean-Claude Chambellan Duplessis, whose mascaron motif appears notably on the mount of a Sèvres vase, the blue-and-gold pot-pourri Hébert, preserved in the Musée du Louvre (OA 11 772). The form of this clock, raised on four feet, may also be compared to that of the four-doe-leg clock designed by Duplessis for the Sèvres manufactory in the early 1760s, an example of which was delivered in 1762 to Madame de Pompadour for the Château de Menars. Meissonnier and Duplessis, both natives of Turin in the Duchy of Savoy, were among the artists who left a lasting mark on the French decorative arts during the reign of Louis XV.

Jacques-Jérôme Gudin, son of the clockmaker Jacques Gudin, who died in 1743, was born in Paris in 1732. Admitted as a master clockmaker in 1750, he quickly established a strong reputation among the capital’s connoisseurs. Following his marriage in 1769 to Geneviève-Victoire Marteau, daughter of a medal engraver and a King’s goldsmith, he established his workshop on the Quai des Orfèvres, where he remained until 1784. Considered one of the most important clockmakers of the reign of Louis XV, he worked notably with Lazare Duvaux, the marchand-mercier and jeweler who supplied Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour.