A large Louis XVI period wall clock in chased and gilt bronze, signed Jacques PANIER in Paris. The clock's body is in the form of an architectural cartouche, with a fluted or beveled background and a molded bezel, framed by two brackets with goat heads and open pomegranates, and by two openwork trellises, underlined by a heavy laurel wreath, and surmounted by a Cupid writing, framed by two Greek-style handles. The glazed lower section is decorated with a dentil frieze, four pine cones, and a prominent pomegranate-shaped finial. The dial is white enamel and bears the clockmaker's signature. Roman numerals painted in black indicate the hours, and Arabic numerals indicate the minutes. A railway track adorns the hands. These hands are openwork and engraved with dolphins or fleur-de-lis. The clock has a key-wound mechanical movement and is signed. Wire suspension with a disc-shaped pendulum, added later. Blackened brass sheet metal base, screwed on. Circa: 1775.
Jacques Panier: Master watchmaker from Louis XV to Louis XVI. Master in 1743, Jacques Charles Panier worked until the 1780s. He was a warden-visitor of the Corporation in 1759, and of the syndicate in 1782.
Condition report: Some casting cracks, wear and some oxidation to the original mercury gilding; left trellis split and missing; some hairlines and lifting to the enamel of the dial, with two restored chips at 9 o'clock.
- Reference :
- 3333
- Width :
- 42 (cm)
- Height :
- 76 (cm)
- Depth :
- 13 (cm)
- Era:
- 18th century
- Style:
- Louis XVI
- Materials:
- Gilded bronze
