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An extremely fine Louis XVI gilt bronze cartel clock of eight day duration, signed on the dial and on the movement Regnault à Paris, the beautiful white enamel dial by the eminent enamellist Joseph Coteau signed and dated on the reverse Coteau 1778, with Arabic and Roman numerals and a fine pair of gilt brass hands for the hours and minutes. The twin-barrel movement with anchor escapement, silk thread suspension, striking on the hour and half hour on a single bell, with outside count wheel. The magnificent Neo-classical case attributed to François Vion surmounted by a vase with gadrooned lid and rams’ head handles on fluted and scrolled supports above a ribbon-tied acanthus-wrapped cornice above the dial, flanked by foliate paterae issuing fruiting laurel garlands, the glazed pendulum aperture above a pierced tapering body cast with leaf-tip and acanthus scrolls
Paris, date circa 1778
Height 71 cm, width 35 cm.
Literature: Hans Ottomeyer and Peter Pröschel, “Vergoldete Bronzen”, 1986, p. 179, pl. 3.7.4, illustrating a pen and ink design of circa 1770 from the workshop of François Vion for an almost identical cartel clock but with a differing surmounting finial, numbered 21, from an album in the Bibliothèque Doucet, Paris.
Evidence of the clock’s superb quality is provided by the fact that the dial was made by Joseph Coteau (1740-1801) who, as one of the greatest in his art, only supplied the finest clockmakers. The movement was made by Pierre-Antoine Regnault (1731-1809), who was received as a maître in 1754 and in 1786 was appointed Horloger de sa Majesté Impériale L’Empereur François Ier d’Autriche (1768-1835). Highly respected within his guild Regnault served as Garde-Visiteur (1769-70), Syndic (1778-80, 1786-88), Député (1781-89) and also as Officier-Contrôleur de la Garde de Nuit. He was the son of the master clockmaker Pierre Regnault (b. circa 1700 d. 1776) whose business he purchased in 1768, at which date he already had his own sizeable business and a stock valued at 22,000 livres. At the time he was received into his guild he was established at rue de la Pelleterie. By 1767 he had moved to rue de la Huchette and by 1768 to rue Vieille du Temple. In addition to Vion he is known to have used cases by François and Jean Goyer, Joseph and Jean-Joseph de Saint-Germain as well as Robert and Jean-Baptiste Osmond, and in turn supplied the clock for a highly ornate cabinet-secrétaire by Jean Goyer and René Dubois, now at Waddesdon Manor.
Due to the close similarity with the almost identical design by François Vion (maître 1764, fl. 1764-c.1800), one can also attribute the present case to this leading bronzier. Apart from a few decorative gilt bronze accessories, such as plinths for statuettes (such as one supporting a figure of Cupid by Falconet in the Wrightsman Collection, Metropolitan Museum), Vion appears to have specialised in clock cases. Many of these were highly decorative such as one representing the Three Graces, housing a movement by Lepaute à Paris, in the Musée du Louvre, Paris, made for the comtesse du Barry at Château de Fontainebleau, the design for which, numbered 20, appeared on the
same sheet as that for the present case. Other figural cases by Vion include one surmounted by Venus and putti, now in the Musée Municipal, Besançon. He also created a number of cases supported by animals such as the pendule ‘au lion’ made for the Ministère d’Etat, now at the Ministry of Finance, Paris. In addition the present gallery previously owned a pendule ‘au lion’ with case and movement attributed to Vion and P-A Regnault (illustrated in “Richard Redding, Masterpieces of the Past”, 2007, pp. 94-95). Vion is also recorded as having worked with the clockmaker Jean-Baptiste-André Furet and also supplied quality cases to makers such as Charles and Jean-Baptiste Dutertre, Lepaute, Manière and Cronier.
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