French Régence console clock, Talon, ca. 1725

Movement
The approximately twenty-one-day movement is driven by a spring barrel. It is regulated by a verge escapement in combination with a pendulum hung on silk. A second spring barrel drives the striking train, which strikes the hours and half hours on a bell. The movement is signed upon the back plate: L. Talon a Paris. This refers to Louis Talon, who became a master clockmaker in 1719.

Dial
The enamelled bronze dial features thirteen white enamelled cartouches, twelve of which are decorated with blue enamelled Roman numerals indicating the hours. The minutes are engraved in the bronze along the outer edge. The hands are blued steel. The thirteenth cartouche forms the central section of the dial, which bears the signature.

Case
The design of the clock, also known as Tête de Poupée (Doll’s Head), displays stylistic similarities with the works of André Charles Boulle. The clock has been entirely finished in premier-partie boulle work inlaid on tortoiseshell with a red background. The boulle technique involves the simultaneous cutting of several layers of different materials, creating a series of combinable elements. This enables the creation of a number of polychrome compositions equal to the number of materials used.

The clock stands upon a loose base in the shape of a reverse trapezium, featuring a central field of blue horn surrounded by a brass border. The console is flanked on either side by stylised ram’s heads, and terminates in a gilt bronze pine cone. The transition to the clock case is decorated with a semicircular gilt bronze border with a repeating pattern.

The lower section of the clock case has a narrow waist and features a centrally placed lenticle, below which the clock’s foot is decorated with gilt bronze acanthus leaves. Above the lenticle is the dial, behind a round glass door. Above the dial is an additional medallion showing a portrait in profile surrounded by festoons. The clock is crowned with a bronze ornament in the shape of an incense burner.

Provenance:
Mentink en Roest, Vught
Private collection, Amsterdam