670 - A Parisian Louis XVI cartel clock

A Parisian Louis XVI cartel clock Fire-gilded bronze, domed glass, white enamel dial with manganese-black markings, openwork gilded hands. Replaced 14-day movement with a pendulum suspended by a thread and half-hour chime on a bell. Inscribed on the dial "GILLE L'AINE A PARIS". There are cracks in the enamel; the piece needs repairing. Height c. 80, width 41 cm. C. 1770, the bronze case attributed to Jean-Charles Delafosse. Pierre II Gille, son of master watchmaker Pierre François Gille, initially worked alongside his father before setting up his own workshop. Appointed a master in 1746, he produced movements of outstanding quality, for which some of the era’s most prominent bronze casters—such as Osmond, Saint-Germain and Delafosse—cast cases. The movement in this watch does not meet his usual standard and has probably been replaced. Literature An identical example at Nymphenburg Palace, Munich, and a design drawing illustrated in Ottomeyer/Pröschel (eds), Vergoldete Bronzen. Die Bronzearbeiten des Spätbarock und Klassizismus, vol. I, Munich 1986, pp. 182, fig. 3.8.1 and 3.8.2. S.a. Kjellberg, Encyclopédie de la pendule française du Moyen Age au XXe siècle, Paris 1997, p. 191 C.