Object Description
Neoclassical Gilt-Bronze and Polychrome Enamel Mantel Clock
By Denière et Fils (French, 1804–1903) | Picard, Henri (French, fl. 1831–1864)
Height: 45cm, width56cm, depth: 25cm
This impressive mantel clock, executed in Paris around 1860, brings together sculptural gilt bronze of exceptional quality and vividly coloured enamel work, the product of a collaboration between two of the capital’s leading bronziers. The case carries two stamps for “H. PICARD”, while the movement is signed “Denière / Ft de Bronzes / Paris” and numbered 96997 — a pairing of makers that speaks to the standards of craftsmanship maintained by the great Parisian workshops of the Second Empire.
At the heart of the design is a female figure in classical dress, shown recumbent and cast in high relief, her braided hair, jewellery, and facial features rendered with notable precision. The figure rests upon a richly decorated chaise longue standing on four turned supports; set into its side is the timepiece itself, its circular dial enclosed within an ormolu surround. The dial, of white enamel, is painted with black Roman numerals and fitted with pierced hands of blued steel, and carries the Denière signature.
Below, the whole composition is raised on an oval base of stepped form, ornamented across its surface with gilt relief work interspersed with enamelled panels in geometric, arabesque, and floral patterns. The enamel introduces passages of blue, green, red, and gold that play against the warmth of the surrounding gilt bronze, an effect of chromatic richness found only in the most ambitious French sculptural clocks of the period.
The Picard stamps appear to the underside of the figure’s draped robe and to the underside of the platform; the movement is marked by its maker and bears the serial number 96997.
Henri Picard stands among the foremost Parisian bronziers of the mid-nineteenth century, remembered for the gilt-bronze furnishings he supplied to the court of Napoleon III, including commissions for the Palais des Tuileries. The house of Denière, established by Jean-François Denière and later trading as Denière & Fils, was one of the most distinguished producers of luxury bronzes in nineteenth-century France, counting royal and imperial patrons across Europe among its clientele. Assured in its modelling and opulent in its ornament, the present clock captures the sculptural clockmaking of the Second Empire at its height.