Mantel clock (pendule de chiminée)

Paul Gudin Le Jeune|Meissen Manufactory|Vincennes Manufactory

clock ca. 1750, figures decorated ca. 1737/38 · Case: hard-paste and soft-paste porcelain, with gilded-bronze mounts; Dial: white enamel with blue numerals for hours and blue numerals for minutes; Movement: brass and steel · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Parisian guilds placed restrictions on the materials that could be incorporated in clockcases. However, entrepreneurs known as marchands-merciers circumvented these rules by combining parts obtained from various sources, resulting in clocks as elaborate as this one. Here, a porcelain figure group, known as The Hand Kiss, and a separate figure of a court jester are seen with rococo gilded-bronze stems bearing porcelain flowers. Peeping from the undergrowth at the twelve o’clock position is a porcelain cat with a dead bird.

Artist

Paul Gudin Le Jeune|Meissen Manufactory|Vincennes Manufactory

Date

clock ca. 1750, figures decorated ca. 1737/38

Medium

Case: hard-paste and soft-paste porcelain, with gilded-bronze mounts; Dial: white enamel with blue numerals for hours and blue numerals for minutes; Movement: brass and steel

Culture

French, Paris with German, Meissen and French, Vincennes case

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

The Lesley and Emma Sheafer Collection, Bequest of Emma A. Sheafer, 1973