Louis XVI Cartel from "Charles Dutertre, watchmaker in Paris".

Small gilt and chased bronze alcove cartel with enamel movement and dial signed "Charles Dutertre, horloger à Paris", Louis XVI period.

The cartel presents a case of a form designed by Delafosse or Osmond around 1770 and then reinterpreted by many ornamentalists and bronzeworkers of the late Louis XV and Louis XVI periods.

The upper part consists of a neoclassical ring, supporting an acanthus falling above a lion mask, framed by laurel garlands that encircle the dial (missing the minute hand).

Below the dial of the alcove cartel are joined laurel garlands that festoon. They are detached from an openwork background with mosaics running along the sides of the case, to better let hear the two stamps of the print.

Our alcove cartel retains a beautiful old gilding with mercury, has a fine chasing and beautiful burnished highlighting the bronze case.

Charles Dutertre was a very good watchmaker active during the second half of the 18th century. He passed his master's degree in 1758 and worked with his father in the workshop on the Quai de l'Ecole. Charles-Nicolas is the son of Nicolas-Charles Dutertre and the grandson of Jean-Batiste I. His father, already, used cases of Goyer, bronzes of A. Foullet, Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain and Osmond. Charles received orders from the famous merchant-merchant Dominique Daguerre, placing his clocks in the most sought-after houses of the 1780s-1790s, including the Count of Artois, Prince Charles-Alexandre of Lorraine, the Marquise of Langeac and Grimod de la Reynière.

Clocks bearing his name are kept at the Château de Versailles, the Nissim de Camondo Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Size (H x W x D): 45 x 21 x 9 cm.

The minute hand is missing. Cartel of alcove proposed in working condition.