French Louis XVI period white Carrare marble clock

Clock called "pendule portique" in white and black marble.

The enamelled dial, with Roman numerals for hours and Arabic numerals for minutes, is surrounded by a finely chiseled and gilded frieze, surmounted by an ornate urn on a white marble base and ends with a large lamp-head composed of two natural vines, joined by a ribbon, with buds, flowers, foliage and bunches of grapes, and at its center a crown of flowers surmounted by foliage.

This dial rests on two white marble columns each framed by two baluster-shaped balusters in gilt bronze, surmounted by two bronze urns finely chiseled and gilded. They are based on black marble and white marble, all enriched with friezes of gilded bronze beads and receive a trophy drop including two lyres and two quivers within flowers and foliage and rubannés fruits.

The terrace with steps of white marble is adorned with chiselled and gilded bronze friezes punctuated with florets and having in its center a bas-relief of putti in waves or clouds. It rests on four small finely chopped feet.


The "pendule portique" ou "en portique" was invented in the Louis XVI period, as well as an unequaled variety of other models. The "portique" model will be a huge success and will have a wide variety of variations. It is still a real small architecture in reduction, including columns, consoles, urns, and ornamental repertoire borrowed from architecture. This architectural inspiration is governed by neoclassicism and the "Greek taste" drawing its references in the discoveries of the archaeological sites of Herculaneum and Pompeii.

This clock is perfectly representative of the gantry clock as it was appreciated at the time Louis XVI. The columns of marble, the bases, the terrace with steps, the ornamental repertory, all borrow from the architecture. The use of white and black marble, urns and trophies refers to antiquity, while the rich use of chiseled and gold-plated bronze shows and recalls the preciousness of the piece.


The name of the watchmaker was crossed out on the dial, leaving only the indication "in Paris". It was a practice mercers merciers, current in the eighteenth century, not to disclose the name of the manufacturer of the movement to their customers, avoiding that it is addressed directly to him.


BIBLIOGRAPHY :

• KJELLBERG Pierre, Encyclopédie de la pendule française du Moyen-Âge au XXe siècle,, Paris, Les Éditions de l’Amateur, 2005.
• TARDY, Henri-Gustave LENGELLÉ alias, La Pendule française, 1ère partie, des origines au Louis XV, Paris, Tardy, 1974.