Egyptian-style mantel set, including a large clock and a pair of candelabras in gilt bronze, patina and cherry red marble. The central figure of the clock represents the goddess Isis wearing a Némès and holding in her hands the dial with Roman numerals, set against a cherry-red marble background and topped with a drapery. It is flanked by two pilasters featuring an obelisk, mounted in gilded bronze panels in imitation of hieroglyphs and surmounted by a canopic bull's head. The pair of candelabras depicts a kneeling Egyptian woman wearing a Nemes headdress, surmounted by two gilded bronze light arms. It stands on a gilt bronze base with hieroglyphic patina and cherry red marble.
Empire period.
Height. Pendulum: 54 cm - Candelabra: 55 cm.
(Small accidents and missing parts)
Related literature:
Thomas Hope, "Household Furniture and Interior
Decoration", 1807, pl. VII, showing Hope's drawing of the Aurora Room in his London home with a clock of the same model. And pl. XIII, no. 3n showing Hope's more detailed drawing for this clock.
Sylvie Chadenet, "Les Styles Empire & Restauration", 1976, p.25, pl. 2, a clock of similar design to the present work, which was owned by Madame
Maria Letizia, mother of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Hans Ottomeyer and Peter Pröschel, "Vergoldete Bronzen", 1986, p.336, pl. 5.3.2, illustrating the present clock.
This ornament is part of the aesthetic trend linked to Egyptomania, which developed under the Empire following the infatuation provoked by the rediscovery of numerous antiquities during Bonaparte's Egyptian campaign between 1789 and 1801.
The original composition of this clock, particularly the superb Egyptian figure, derives from certain projects by Parisian ornamentalists and architects created in the last years of the 18th century following Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign. We note above all that this Egyptian model was adapted by the bronze-maker Antoine-André Ravrio, most certainly after a model by the sculptor Louis-Simon Boizot (1743-1809), at the beginning of the Empire period. A very similar model is in the Royal Pavilion Art Gallery and Museum of Brighton and, like our clock, also features a Roman numeral dial on a cherry-red marble background.
The candelabras are inspired by a model by
Claude Gallé. They are to be compared with a pair of mantelpieces attributed to Claude Gallé.
Gallé (1759-1815), now in the Musée de l'Horlogerie in Geneva, and illustrated in H. Ottomeyer, P.
Proschel et al, "Vergoldete Bronzen", Munich, 1986, Vol.
I, p.338, fig. 5.3.6
Estim. 15,000 - 20,000 EUR
