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La Souveraine

96 - A rare clock known as ‘Au Petit Oiseleur’, crafted from chis…
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Estimate €300 - €500
Sale commission
Description
A rare clock known as ‘Au Petit Oiseleur’, crafted from chiselled bronze, gilded and finished with a black patina, depicting a young African hunter standing, wearing a crown of feathers, clad in a loincloth and carrying a bow and quiver. With his right arm outstretched, he holds a bird resting on his hand. The movement is set amongst a pile of bundles and goods tied with ropes, adorned with hunting accessories and surmounted by a small open casket filled with jewellery. The circular white-enamelled dial, signed ‘Thiéry à Paris’, features Roman numerals for the hours, Arabic numerals for the minutes and a railway-style minute track. Openwork brass hands, two winding holes. The whole rests on a rectangular base, the front of which is adorned with a bas-relief depicting a scene of trade between two figures in an exotic landscape dotted with palm trees, and finished with four spindle-shaped feet. Movement with a meeting wheel, silk-thread suspension and bell chime. H. 37 cm – W. 21.5 cm – D. approx. 11 cm. CONDITION: original gilding, parts requiring reattachment (the parrot, the palm wreath—from which four screws are missing—and the front left spindle-shaped foot), the lower upright of the bronze terrace bas-relief frame is slightly broken; enamel is missing from the dial at the top of the right-hand winding hole; the pupil of the left eye is missing; the silk thread of the suspension needs checking; operation not guaranteed. BIBLIOGRAPHY: an identical example, also signed ‘Thiéry à Paris’, is held at the François Duesberg Museum in Mons (Belgium), reproduced under the title *The Little Fowler* (‘Le Petit Oiseleur’), no. 260, and dated to the Empire period, circa 1805. COMMENTARY: This clock belongs to the Parisian tradition of so-called ‘au bon sauvage’ clocks, developed in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, against the backdrop of a European taste for depictions of distant lands. The iconography here combines the hunting of exotic birds with their sale to Europeans. The scene depicted in bas-relief on the base thus illuminates the main subject: it represents the commercial trade for which the captured birds are intended. The composition reflects the interest shown, during the Consulate and the Empire, in exotic subjects, travelogues and idealised depictions of nature.
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About the sale VISSI D'ARTE
Auction location
Auction time 10/10/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures modified on 10/08/2026 at 3:00 PM
Lot description modified on 10/08/2026 at 3:22 PM
Pictures credits:
The Sovereign
See original version (French)
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