Roundel, Victorious Emperor.

Inlaid damasquino iron, diameter: 59 cm.

Castle of Écouen, Musée national de la Renaissance.

 

 

So great was the success of this style of clock in France that it remained in favour despite all other changes of fashion. Here, for instance, is one on which we readily identify the bronzes of Caffieri, from the middle of the reign of Louis XV. At the same time, Boulle’s inlays have already been exaggerated, the tortoise shell was coloured red, blue and green and painting had been mixed with bronze to increase the effect. It is at a later date, however, especially under Louis XV, that the pendulum-clock acquires real interest; regarded in one aspect it assumes a historical character, yet in another, it portrays some curious manners and habits of the time.

Formerly, commercial manufactories scarcely existed; little work was done for the public, and each person made an order executed in accordance with his own tastes or specially adapted to its intended destination. Frequently armorial shields, or figures wearing crowns, serve to show for whom the work was made. Occasionally the clock preserved the memory of a marriage, thus on a memorial of this sort whereon Venus and Cupid predominate, we see military trophies mingled with the attributes of beauty. Also, from a bas-relief representing marriage under its antique aspect emerges the crests of the wedded pair, with their figures on medallions wearing crowns.

Despite these examples of important works specially ordered by the great, we must not believe that the rising middle-classes were at a loss to obtain objects not only adapted to moderate wants but of real elegance. First, we see this in the hanging clocks, which we have already mentioned, in those ornamental clocks composed of a cippus[6] supporting a vase with garlands. Secondly, in the clock, of which there are some variations, a vase, decked with draperies and festoons of flowers around a mask, supports an allegorical figure of Truth, under the guise of a female; she holds a serpent and mirror, indolently leaning on a pillar containing the dial. The ebony base is adorned with a rich poste[7] resting upon a central shell in ormolu, as is the rest of the clock.

In regard to the Louis XVI period, describing the creations of that epoch would be attempting the impossible. Wherever figures predominate, it is under mythological form, and with that affected study of the antique which produced the generation of delicate and charming nymphs with slender forms and carefully modelled arms and feet, in elegant attitudes. Clodion, Étienne Maurice Falconnet, and Louis-Simon Boizot are the most eloquent interpreters of this style. Their designs, which they often retouched and always carefully finished, are in gold matte, better to set off the perfections of the work, and combined with precious marbles, including alabaster often enriched with delicate paintings of flowers, bone china, and lastly, with bas-reliefs and accessories, all displaying the unprecedented perfection of chasing, an essential characteristic of the period.

The clock is no longer an isolated object; it is the centre piece of an ornamental group, including chandeliers, vases with candlesticks, and wall hooks; they compose a harmonious whole. Where the bronze plays the chief role and the clock presents a complicated subject, candelabra, formed of female figures entwined and supporting the lights, take the place of the vases. When porcelain is employed, the clock, formed by a richly painted vase and surrounded by genies and garlands, will have its accompanying vases also in porcelain, or else the clock is composed of a royal blue cippus, bearing the dial and forming the main subject. The vases are of the same blue, ornamented with ormolu, unless simply rectangular or cylindrical porcelain pedestals serve as bases. All regulator clocks, however, have not been thus reduced to their simplest expression. An example may be seen at the palace of the Corps législatif, signed by Manière, wherein the mahogany case, adorned with bronzes richly gilt, serves as a base to a group of allegorical figures in gilded bronze, supporting a sphere of azure blue studded with golden stars.