"Louis XV-rococo Style Clock In Gilt Bronze Amply Chiseled And Polychrome Porcelain"
Les amusements de l'Automne- Laughing Louis XV-Rococo Style pendulum-terminal in amply chiseled gilt bronze and polychrome porcelain in the style of Sèvres with a recreational subject of "Eaters of grapes". Under a serpentine vine branch around which twist in a tempting fancy leaves, tendrils and bunches of grapes, two ingenuous boys, dressed in ordinary 18th century costumes, frolic in the vintage; at their feet spreads, heavy with juicy grains, a basket overflowing with bunches of grapes marking out the small mossy mound of oval shape. Treated in the round, this pleasant, playful, childish group is riveted to a high plinth with a scalloped profile. Silhouetted of "Rocaille" motifs (florets, foliage windings of flowering acanthus in "S" or "C" shape, rudentée shells), underlined with friezes (oves, gadroons, olives), ornate with flower garlands, country foliage, a diamond-shaped mesh, this one is embellished with a porcelain decoration of great freshness.Set with pearls, porcelain plates with a Celestial blue background and gold highlights pour out an autumnal foliage (bunches of grapes mixed with bindweed); another is animated by a smiling Cherub coiled near a flowered basket in the clouds. Echoing these painted cartouches, the dial with Roman numerals painted in white enamelled cartels is centered in a graceful country crown. Festooned with ample windings and Rocaille "cartridge, the openwork base lavishes on this fancy and light timepiece. At the back, a straight base and flap with a radiant rosette motif. On the dial, in black, trace of signature - Movement marked with the initials: "E.V". Placed under the sign of the Harvests, a rustic task preluding in the tradition to Bacchic rituals, this jovial timepiece draws both its iconography and its ornamental repertoire from the Rococo imagination of the 18th century. His "Eaters of grapes" are similar to the pictorial suite, to the statuettes of "Children" produced, modeled by François Boucher (1703-1770) in the years 1740-1750 for Mme de Pompadour or the Manufacture de Sèvres featuring delicious toddlers in period costumes indulging in the activities of rural life. The artist himself drew his inspiration from one of the Pantomines-Pastorales written by Charles-Simon Favart (1710-1792): "Les Vendanges de Tempé" (1745). In the image of this century crossed by gay pleasures, innocent and ephemeral pleasures, its case is adorned with Rocaille attire, an abundant style adapted to the playful character of the clock. The porcelain decor adds softness and refinement. Childlike figures in the spirit of François Boucher, Rocaille design enamelled with soft tones make this very decorative timepiece an illustration of the Louis XV Style and, more particularly, "Pompadour" as it was pictured in the second half of the 19th century. century.