"cicéron" Pedestal Clock, Grandperrin, Paris, Ca. 1840, Red Marble And Bronze

A beautiful neoclassical-style clock made of “Griotte” red marble and patinated bronze, topped by a bronze bust depicting Cicero, identified by the inscription “CICÉRON” engraved on its bronze base. The clock’s architecturally designed body, shaped like a “milestone,” rests on a base, which in turn sits on chiseled bronze moldings featuring stylized acanthus leaf motifs. The top is adorned with a bronze cornice decorated with a frieze of leaves. The dial is made of bronze and enamel, with black Roman numerals, signed by Ferdinand Grandperrin, 394 Rue Saint-Honoré, and surrounded by a gilded bronze ring and a domed glass bezel. The marble base has been restored. The clock mechanism has been serviced and is in working order.

Dimensions: H 47 cm – base W 20.5 cm x 11.5 cm

French school, circa 1840–1850.

The bust of Cicero, in bronze with a dark brown patina, displays a realistic style characteristic of 19th-century archaeological taste: chiseled features, partial baldness, and antique drapery that reveals the shoulders.

Biography: Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C.) was one of the most prominent figures of ancient Rome: a lawyer, orator, philosopher, and statesman. Consul in 63 B.C., he foiled Catiline’s conspiracy and became the most famous voice of Latin rhetoric. His speeches (the Catiline Orations, the Philippics) and his philosophical treatises (De Officiis, De Republica) shaped Western political and moral thought for centuries. A tireless defender of the Roman Republic against the rise of personal power, he was proscribed and executed on the orders of Mark Antony in 43 B.C. In the eyes of the 19th century, Cicero embodied the figure of the orator-citizen, the wise republican, and the quintessential Latin humanist—a model particularly prized in a France that, after the Revolution, was seeking ancient references to legitimize its own civic ideals.

Lit: Ferdinand-Joseph Grandperrin, son of the Parisian watchmaker Nicolas-François Grandperrin and Anne-Antoinette-Victoire Lherminier, took over his father’s business in the late 1830s and quickly built up a clientele. Based at 394 Rue Saint-Honoré, he gained a certain degree of renown. In September 1842, he married Éléonore-Pauline Meugnot, likely the daughter of the watchmaker Joseph-Julie-Alexandrine Meugnot, who was listed in the 1830 census at Place de l’Oratoire. Grandperrin became famous for his innovative work, as well as for the perfection of his movements.