A Louis XV gilt bronze cartel clock

Cartel with musicians
Gilt bronze
Period Louis XV
Mecanism by J. B. Regnauld (1733-1809) clockmaker at Châlons sur Marne
Gilt bronze attributed to Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain (1719-1791)
Excellent original condition

Dimensions : h. 47.24 in, w. 22.84 in.

Provenance : collection Eduard Palmer (chief executive of Imperial and Royal Austrian Länderbank), Vienna, Austria.
His estate sold at Dorotheum auction, Vienna, December 1 to 6, year 1915.

This exceptional cartel clock we are offering here is one of the most representative works of Rocaille art during the reign Louis XV.
The case is entirely executed in gilt bronze, very finely chiselled and depicts at its top a pastoral scene with a duo of musicians. A standing flute player, accompanied by a singer sitting on a rock holding a sheet music book. The couple are accompanied by a dog sitting quietly next to it and scratching its ear.
The whole is embellished with flowery and foliage branches, volutes and large scrolls of acanthus, enclosing reserves lined with crimson velvet fabrics with pierced brass plates with stylized foliage and scrolls.
This bucolic scene draws its inspiration from the paintings by Nicolas Lancret and Antoine Watteau.
The circular white enamelled dial is signed “Regnauld à Chaalons”, indicates the hours in Roman numerals and the minutes in Arabic numerals by two pierced and gilded brass hands; the movement plate on the back is also signed.
It strikes the hours, the half-hours, as well as the quarters, which was quite rare.

Our cartel can be compared to an almost identical model whose movement is signed Pierre Le Roy, reproduced on the cover of the Encyclopedia of the French pendulum from the Middle Ages to the 20th century by Pierre Kjellberg, Paris, 1997, and p. 102.
Other similar examples are known.
However, despite the quality and originality of the model, none bears the signature of a bronzier. However, it should be noted that the model and the composition have certain similarities with the work of Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain, a Parisian bronzier recognized as one of the masters of the rococo style.

Related works:
• Cartel from the collection Gismondi, Paris, movement by Le Roy
• Cartel illustrated in the French eighteenth century, Connaissance des Arts, Paris, 1956, p. 118
• Cartel from collection Gérard de Berny (sale in Paris on December 2, 1958, lot 37).
• Cartel from the collection of Paul of Yugoslavia, Villa Demidoff, Pratolino (Sotheby's sale, April 21-24, 1969, lot 220)
• Cartel from the Richard Redding collection, movement by Henri Voisin