The cartel is surmounted by a crown in tortoiseshell and copper marquetry with acanthus leaves at the corners, flanked by four putti and surmounted by a putti sitting on a goat
The uprights are adorned at the top with espagnolette masks and end in scrolled feet surmounted by harpies with spread wings. The central glazed panel is decorated with a bronze representing Scylla, daughter of Nisos.
The dial with enamelled Roman numerals and the movement are signed Pia in Paris.
The cartel rests on a copper and tortoiseshell marquetry lamp base decorated with four consoles ending in scrolls and decorated with masks. They join in a gilded bronze console decorated with acanthus leaves ending in a large seed.
Pia in Paris: The name of this watchmaker can be found on a watch and on a square movement in the early 18th century.
André-Charles Boulle (1642 - 1732), cabinetmaker, chiseller, gilder and sculptor to the King
Jean Bérain, designer and ornamentalist.
Clock: H: 85 cm W: 41 cm D: 24 cm
Base: H: 41 cm W: 46 cm D: 24 cm
The work of André-Charles Boulle covers a wide range of furniture, from furniture to gilded bronzes, chandeliers and clocks. His clock-making activity was very important, since in the 1700s, clocks represented a third of his production.
The drawing
This clock is inspired by a drawing by Jean Bérain around 1680, kept in the Bibliothèque Nationale.
The Harpies
The Harpies were the daughters of the sea god Thaumas and the Oceanid. Their number and name vary according to the authors. Described by Hesiod as beautiful winged women, considered by Homer as the goddesses of storms, Nicothoe (the gust), Ocypetes (the swift flyer), Celaeno (dark cloud) were transformed into frightful monsters, kidnappers of children and the souls of the dead.
Reputed to inhabit the Strophades Islands in the Ionian Sea, on the coast of the Peloponnese, Virgil places them at the entrance to hell.
The clocks on the known harpies
HM Elizabeth II Collection, Windsor Castle
Vaux le Vicomte - clock crowned by a putti
Another in the Parisian trade, crowned by a reputation
Champs sur Marne, then the Count Cahen d'Anvers collection
Laura Collection, Sotheby's sale, Paris, 27 June 2001, n°12
Christie's sale, New York, 19 May 1988, No. 72
Goncalvez Collection, Sotheby's sale, Monaco, 5 February 1978, no. 68
5th Earl of Rosebery Collection, Mentmore, Sotheby's sale 18 May 1977, no. 15
Rothschild Collection, Sotheby's sale, London 24 November 1972
Delorme-Collin du Bocage sale, 16 December 2009, n° 182
Sotheby's sale, Paris, 14 April 2010, n° 28
