ANDRÉ-CHARLES BOULLE (Paris, 1642-1732) ET NICOLAS HANET (maître horloger à Paris avant 1712)

CARTEL WITH TIME AND PARKS FIGURES Paris, first quarter of the 18th century Ebony, oak frame; brass and tortoiseshell; gilt bronze; glass and enamel Restorations of use and modified suspension H. 86,5 cm, W. 39 cm, D. 16,5 cm Movement signed : Hanet Paris " A box containing the models of the clock with Parques and the isolated Time " is inventoried in the workshop of the famous cabinetmaker, sculptor and chiseller of the King, André-Charles Boulle, in 1732. The Louvre Museum has a copy of this piece, with its console (fig. 1). Like the one we are presenting, the case with an arched pediment rests on two uprights decorated with a shell on a console and finished with a leafy scroll; it is closed by three panes of glass (one of which is missing) and a glass back. At the top, the figure of Time is lying down to observe the work of the Fates whose bronze figures are applied against the front glass. The three sisters manipulate the thread of life: Clotho unwinds the thread of her distaff, Lachesis measures it, Atropos cuts it. The two cartels derive from the same model designed and engraved by André-Charles Boulle, then published by Mariette in 1707 (fig. 2). Neither of the master's clocks is exactly the same. The one in the Louvre has an inscription and a festooned base, while the one in the former Charles Stein collection has only the inscription and the one in San Donato only the base (figs. 3 and 4). Ours, which rests on four flower-bud feet, has retained its balance and its period movement made by the master clockmaker Nicolas Hanet.