Allegory of the theater clock, Paris, Louis XVI period

Portico clock in white Carrara marble and gilded bronze with mercury.
Portico model decorated with two caryatids in gilded bronze, the one on the right holding a mask and a puppet symbolizing comedy, the one on the left preparing to stab himself, symbolizing tragedy.
At their feet the attributes of the arts: music (tambourine, lute, trumpet) and writing. (books) .
White marble plinth decorated with interlacing friezes and pearls resting on spinning tops.

Exceptional quality of mercury gilding with a double matte and shiny patina.

The white enamelled dial indicates by two golden hands the hours and minutes and two blued steel lace-up hands, the days of the week and the days of the month.

It is signed “Cellier Paris” *.

Original date movement; silk thread suspension, perfect working order (revised by our watchmaker)

The springs dated 1788.

Very good state of conservation; restoration to the marble dome.

Parisian work from the Louis XVI period around 1788.

Height: 55 cm; Width: 37 cm; Depth: 15cm



* CELLIER FrèresHorlogers, clock makers active at the end of the 18th century in Paris.
In 1806, associated with MESTRAL and SCHEFFER, the Cellier brothers employed 60 workers, but no home workers. Their manufacture was asked to exhibit their products at the competition that the Emperor organized in Paris in May 1807, and they gave in after having declined this honor for the first time.

Our opinion :

Our pendulum is a rare model from the end of the reign of Louis XVI, it features a decor typical of this period, with allegories of comedy and tragedy.
Queen Marie Antoinette was very passionate about comedy, which is why she ordered the construction of a Theater at Trianon, named the Queen's Theater, which was to be built in the 1780s under the orders of Richard Mique.
The representations given at Versailles go around the world and the theater becomes fashionable, at the end of the 18th century, paintings, sculptures, textiles ... take up the allegories of this art.
The qualities of chasing and gilding of our copies are worthy of the greatest bronziers of the reign of Louis XVI.