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182
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An important rocaille clock in chased and gilt bronze, the w…
See original version (French)
182
-
An important rocaille clock in chased and gilt bronze, the w…
See original version (French)
Estimate €20,000 - €30,000
Voluntary lot
Description
An important rocaille clock in chased and gilt bronze, the white enamelled circular dial signed 'CAUSARD / A PARIS' surmounted by Chinese figures with parasols, flanked by a chimera and a monkey holding a bird, in a décor of jagged shells, the scrolled base centred on burst pomegranates on which rests a Chinese couple holding a fan.
Louis XV period circa 1745-1749, marks with crowned C.
Edme Jean Causard, active around 1720 until 1780, initially working as a labourer, he was later appointed 'Horloger Privilégié suivant la Cour' around 1753.
H. 84 cm - W. 45 cm - D. 25 cm
(the dial glass is missing)
The vogue for chinoiserie was growing in the 18th century, but it was with the Rocaille style that it reached its full flowering and its most fanciful creations. Our clock is a perfect illustration of this new artistic taste.
Our clock can be compared with another bronze clock attributed with certainty to the founders Robert and Jean-Baptiste Osmond, which features the same figure of a "Chinaman", seated in balance, in the upper part, illustrated in Hans Ottomeyer and Peter Pröschel, Die Bronzearbeiten des Spätbarock und Klassizismus, Munich, 1986, p. 129.
For other important Rococo pendulum models, see :
Pendule rocaille au dromadaire, Paris, Louis XV period, 1745-1749. Paris, Musée du Louvre (inv. OA 6636). Rocaille clock, Paris, Louis XV period, 1745-1749. London, The Wallace Collection (inv. F90).
Born in Audeloncourt in the Haute-Marne around 1720, Edme-Jean Causard was one of the great watchmakers active in Paris under Louis XV. A free-lance worker before 1750, he was appointed privileged watchmaker according to the Court, whose number was fixed at that time at four. He used numerous 'cases' of clocks supplied by the cabinetmaker Nicolas-Jean Marchand, as well as cabinetmakers Antoine Foullet, Nicolas Petit, François Goyer, Jean-Pierre Latz, Adrien Jollain, Louis Moreau and Fortin, and foundrymen Nicolas Bonnet, Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain, René-François Morlay and Edme Roy, not forgetting the Osmonds who are of particular interest to us here. In 1770, Causard was established in the rue Saint-Honoré at the Hôtel d'Angleterre. His clocks were in the homes of the Empress Elisabeth of Russia, the Maréchal de Duras, the Marquises de Langeac and de Massiac, as well as the famous collector Augustin Blondel de Gagny, Intendant and Controller General of the Silverware, the Menus Plaisirs and Chamber Affairs. Edme-Jean Causard died in Paris on 14 August 1780. His nephew, Jean-Baptiste Royer, succeeded him on 23 August of the same year. His brother, Georges (master in 1750, † after 1789), a clockmaker like him, was practising in the Quinze Vingts enclosure in 1770. Clocks signed by Causard are now kept at the Château de Versailles, in the Royal Swedish collections, at the Château de Nymphenburg, as well as in the collections of the Würtembergisches Landesmuseum in Stuttgart, the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rouen and the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
Bibliographical references :
Louise Philippe, "Edme Causard horloger privilégié suivant la Cour", L'Estampille - L'Objet d'Art, no. 235, April 1990, pp. 52-57
Hans Ottomeyer and Peter Pröschel, Vergoldete Bronzen, Die Bronzearbeiten des Spätbarock und Klassizismus, vol. I, Munich, 1986, p. 129.
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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