BRONZE CLOCK WITH MUSE. FRANCE, 19TH CENTURY.

Table clock with Muse and writers. Blued and gilded bronze, Paris machinery. France, 19th century. Machinery in perfect working order. Table clock in burnished and gilded bronze with Paris machinery and a white dial with a gilded bronze centre (Roman numerals for the hours, lines for the minutes and Breguet-type hands). The rectangular pedestal is raised on supports and has an architectural decoration; the base of the clock, also rectangular, shows plant crowns with scrolls enhancing cartouches (with names: Virgile, Tasse, Homere, Racine, Voltaire); the dial and the machinery are housed in a gilded bronze piece that resembles a bookcase, on which appear books, a laurel wreath and a musical instrument. A burnished bronze female figure, dressed in a tunic, holds this kithara, a plucked string instrument typical of ancient Greece, similar to the lyre (the difference is the sound box, so it could be a lyre in the present). The female figure would be a Muse: these classical divinities of Greek mythology inspired the arts; daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, companions of the god Apollo in his retinue, each one is related to a branch of art and knowledge. She is linked to the lyre Calliope (muse of eloquence, beauty and epic poetry) and to the zither Erato (muse of lyrical-love poetry). As for the names mentioned, the first refers to Publius Virgil Maro (70 BC-19 BC), Roman poet author of the Aeneid, the Georgics, etc. who was also known for his role as guide in Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. The French name “Le Tasse” refers to Torquato Tasso (1544-1595), Italian poet author of Jerusalem Delivered, Rinaldo, etc. Homer is the name given to the person credited with the authorship of the Iliad and the Odyssey, bases of Greco-Latin epic literature. Racine is the surname, among others, of the French playwright Jean Racine (1639-1699) and his son and poet Louis Racine (1692-1763). François-Marie Arouet (Paris, 1694-1778), better known as Voltaire, was a French writer, historian, philosopher and lawyer, with numerous literary and philosophical writings. Curiously, there is evidence of an Empire clock (located in a private French collection) in the shape of a library with books, very similar to the one in this piece. And it is worth remembering that the high specialization of French bronze makers, which gave rise to high-quality works of art, meant that several pieces of the same model were created if it was popular with the aristocracy and the upper class. For this reason, there is evidence of several clocks, with slight differences from the present one (especially in the dial and in the absence of blued bronze), kept in private collections and dated to the beginning of the 19th century. Weight: 12.7 kg.

· Size: 40x15x57 cms.