Clock and candlesticks in porcelain and gilt bronze. France, 19th century. Mechanism in perfect working order. Mantelpiece consisting of a clock and two five-light candelabra, all three pieces made from a combination of gilt bronze, with raised and rounded elements and cold-chiseled details, and porcelain decorated with low-temperature enamels, including gilt enamel. The porcelain pieces follow 18th-century models from the Sèvres National Manufactory, with large pictorial cartouches on a cobalt blue background decorated with gilded plant motifs. The ensemble follows a historicist design that combines baroque and neoclassical elements with Rococo-inspired enamelled scenes, depicting landscapes and scenes with mythological themes alluding to the arts and the goddess Venus. The clock mechanism is stamped “Chles. MT”, with serial number 17420. The main enamelled porcelain plates are signed DP Boncher. The clock follows an architectural structure, with an oval base with a prominent front on the ground plan, raised on four moulded feet in the shape of a top, on which a large ornamental vase is placed. This base has a distinct pinto and, above it, a main body like a façade, with a circular pediment that houses the clock face. This includes black enamelled Roman numerals on white medallions with a gold border, arranged around the central representation of a cupid reclining among clouds, holding a floral garland and accompanied by musical instruments. Between the medallions that house the numbers, a small jewelled decoration evoking pearls and inlaid rubies, which is echoed in the secondary areas of the body of the piece and also of the vase, always combined with delicate gold filigree. On either side of the face are two female portraits of 18th century ladies, in oval frames. Below, a classically inspired scene with a muse holding musical instruments, probably Euterpe or Erato, accompanied by a cupid reading a score. On the sides of the clock body, two large curved rectangular plaques house highly pictorial enamelled landscapes, worked with the same miniaturist precision as the rest of the enamelled cartouches. These are landscapes of romantic heritage, again inspired by the 18th century, with ideal twilight-like settings, featuring classical ruins. The vase that tops the clock body has a hemispherical tank, shoulders ending in a ridge, an openwork truncated conical neck that opens gently towards the shoulders, and a domed lid, also openwork. The handles are figurative, in bronze, with two female herms crowned with flowers, clearly inspired by Greco-Latin, worked in the round. The vase houses two enamelled porcelain cartouches on the top, the front with two cupids and a dove – a symbolic allusion to Venus – and the back with musical instruments. The clock design is completed by two thick S-shaped plant supports in bronze, under the vase, and counter mouldings and plant motifs cast in relief and cold-chiselled, combining a matt and polished finish. The candelabra follow a similar design, with large neoclassical vases on pedestals, in this case cylindrical, raised on four low turned feet. The bases house porcelain cartouches with scenes of cupids related to the arts; one shows two cupids practising painting, and the other two in a scene related to classical lyric poetry, with one putto writing while the other, holding a lyre, raises a laurel wreath above his head. The cartouches on the front of the candelabra vases show scenes of Venus and Cupid in ideal landscape settings, one of them with a background of classical ruins. As with the clock, the candelabra vases include figurative bronze handles, in this case with rams' heads. The lighting body of both pieces includes four bronze arms based on vegetal braces, finished with cylindrical porcelain burners, with the fifth highest burner standing out, crowning the central axis.
· Size: Reloj: 42x60x65 cms. Candelabros: 20x20x62,5 cms.
ANTIQUES
Ref.: ZF1226
