A Louis XVI Style 'Three Graces' Spherical Clock

Object Description

A Louis XVI Style Gilt and Patinated Bronze and Marble Three Graces Spherical Clock. By Emmanuel-Alfred (Dit Alfred II) Beurdeley.

Modelled in bronze with the Three Graces holding flower chains and aloft a sphere surmounted by a cloudborne figure of cupid. The revolving circular white enamel dial with Arabic numerals and fleur-de-lis between. The tripartite green marble base with acanthus gilt-bronze frieze mounts. On toupie feet.

Stamped ‘BY’ for Beurdely and ‘P20’.

France, Circa 1880.

Object History

Provenance
Collection Pierre Lécoules, Paris.

The Louis XVI antecedent of this model is not known but it was popularly produced in the nineteenth century by different Parisien makers. An example with gilded bronze figures is in the Violet Room at the Château de Chantilly and described as dating to Circa 1775. However Camille Mestdagh has identified that the clock was delivered by Beurdeley to the Duc d’Aumale for his château of Chantilly.

The design can be credited to the sculptor Claude Michel Clodion (1738 –1814) with comparison to a related figural clock known as ‘The Dance of Time’ which has three nymphs supporting a glass sphere. This clock has also been compared to the Three Graces clock designed by the fondeur François Vion, a drawing of which is reproduced in an album of designs now conserved in the Bibliothèque Doucet, Paris (VI E 15, Rés.fol.20/1). Described as ‘Le temps qui passe entre l’amour et les Grâces’, an example can be seen at the château de Fontainebleau (Inv.F918 C).

Object Literature

Camille Mestdagh, L’Ameublement d’art français 1850-1900, Les éditions de l’Amateur,Paris, 2010, page 90 (fig. 82).

Object Details