Offered by Galerie Gilles Linossier
Dimensions: H 58 cm x W 31.5 cm x D 14 cm
Bshe so-called “religious” clock in Boulle marquetry; brass on a red tortoiseshell background.
Richly decorated with gilded bronzes, it has a blue enameled dial forming Roman numerals and is finely carved in its center with two back-to-back sphinxes, wearing jewels and feathers, their tails intertwined, looking at each other. At their top, a smiling mask wears a crown from which two volatile representations escape.
Overlooking the dial, a mascaron with crown and foliage delicately embraces the shape of the cartel. On either side of the dial, female heads wearing crowns and jewelry, with winding console busts and ending in foliage, appear as falls
Under the dial, scrolls of foliage follow the curve of the minutes and present in their center, a head placed on a richly flowered altar and framed by ribbons on the sides.
Below we see a foliage garland topped with a shell, in finely gilded bronze, chiseled and openwork.
The pediment is framed on each corner by an urn from which a torch escapes and on each edge of foliage delicately following its curve. It is surmounted by a frieze decorated with tori of floral ribbons in the middle and dominated by two small covered vases.
The top-shaped feet, chiseled with foliage, are enhanced by a curved line on the front symbolizing large flowers in the windings and a campane in the center (decorative elements very present in Louis XIV clocks)
Finally, each side of the clock features a woman's mask with a flowery crown topped with a chiseled and openwork frieze.
The magnificent marquetry in part illustrates floral and animal themed motifs. There are indeed fantastic birds that can be compared to the pendants made by Daniel Mignot in the 16th century. The birds are represented with very long beaks, snail-like bodies and long antennae such as can be seen in Mignot's ornamentations.
The movement is signed by Gilles Martinot in Paris
Very beautiful work from the Louis XIV period.
Restoration of use and maintenance.
GILLES MARTINOT, MASTER WATCHMAKER:
The Martinot family was one of the largest watchmaking families from the 16th century.
They are mentioned as “the longest dynasty in the history of watchmaking. We find ourselves face to face with beings of exceptional longevity and no less exceptional fertility who, for nearly two centuries, held official jobs” Dictionnaires des Horlogers, Tardy, p 438, Paris, 1971.
During the 18th century, part of this “dynasty” was in charge of the king’s watchmaking business.
There are two Gilles Martinot. One (born in 1646, died in 1670 and watchmaker to the king) is the son of Denis Martinot (watchmaker to kings Henry IV and Louis XIII and eldest son of Gilbert Martinot), the other, surely the one in question here (1658-1726), also a master watchmaker, is the son of Balthazar Martinot known as “the Elder” Watchmaker to Queen Anne of Austria then to King Louis XIV and the Council, considered in his time as one of the most famous watchmakers from all over Europe. The office of Watchmaker to the King was transmitted singularly by kinship. It is therefore probable that Gilles Martinot was in turn Watchmaker to the King.
They are recognized for their clock whose marquetry cases on a tortoiseshell background were often the work of André Charles Boulle (1642-1732)
