Description
Sèvres porcelain 'Lyre' chime and calendar clock, mid-19th century. White and polychrome enamel dial signed 'Bastet' (according to information supplied), Roman numerals for the hours divided at 12 minutes, Arabic for the calendar, the surround with representations of the signs of the zodiac in polychrome enamel each in a semicircle surrounded by foliage with the name of its corresponding month written below; openworked brass hour and minute hands, blued steel calendar hands; round movement numbered '32653', 'Brocot' escapement with carnelian levers, steel stem balance with grid above the movement encircled by rhinestones, count wheel on the outside, striking on gong. The lyre-shaped stand in probably hard Sèvres porcelain 'à fond gros bleu' with foliage decoration and applied gilded brass frieze, crowned with an Apollo head. H. 64cm ; W. 28cm ; D. 15.5cm. Provenance: Acquired by Baron and Baroness X from J. Rochelle Thomas, the Georgian Galleries, King Street, St James, London on May 26, 1925 for £100, then by descent. Bibliography: This model was created at the Manufacture de Sèvres around 1785. A very similar example, with a Coteau dial of this date, signed 'Courieult à Paris', is in the Musée du Louvre (inv. R483, currently on display at the Château de Versailles); another is in the Musée National de la Céramique in Sèvres (Inv. 21649). The Bastet dial is executed in the style of Coteau, without having exactly the same hues. Bastet himself was a renowned enameller at the time. In 1860, he obtained a patent for a new method of enameling watch dials and clocks. He worked at 56, rue Charlot, Paris (Annuaire et Almanach du Commerce ..., Didot Bottin, 1862.
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Sèvres porcelain 'Lyre' chime and calendar clock, mid-19th c
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