Portico clock Louis XVI - Gilt bronze - 1790

Superb Louis XVI-era portico clock, made of finely worked white marble and chiseled and gilded bronze.

This model gracefully illustrates the neoclassical vocabulary dear to the years 1770-1780: ribbons, pearls, pompons, and trimmings blend with vegetal scrolls, rosettes, palmettes, and urn-shaped motifs. The refined taste for Wedgwood biscuit cameos, very fashionable during the second half of the 18th century, adds a touch of English delicacy to French elegance.

The white enamel dial with Arabic numerals is set within a sumptuous frame: it is topped with a covered vase decorated with fruits and flowers in an antique style, framed by two oval Wedgwood biscuit medallions, surrounded by laurel garlands and ribbons. Beneath the movement, fringes, pompons, and botanical motifs extend around a third medallion. The straight entablature, edged with a row of pearls and punctuated by rosettes, connects the two supports. These supports, decorated with scrollwork, are flanked by small pinecones on dice and rest on bases topped with lion paws.

The base, adorned with delicate garlands and rosettes, supports a pendulum depicting a radiant Apollo head.
Blending the purity of white marble with the richness of gilded bronze and the preciousness of Wedgwood cameos, this clock testifies to the excellence of Parisian workshops under the reign of Louis XVI and will appeal to connoisseurs of refined watchmaking and neoclassical furniture.