CIRCA 1780

In the form of a rotunda, the design of this charming clock was inspired by the ancient Greek and Roman temples often reproduced or imagined by talented painters such as Hubert Robert throughout the second half of the eighteenth century. When searching for contemporaneous French buildings that could have influenced the maker of this clock, Richard Mique’s famous Temple of Love comes to mind that he designed for Marie-Antoinette in her gardens of the Petit Trianon, see D. Ledoux-Lebard, Versailles, Le Petit Trianon: Le Mobilier Des Inventaires de 1807, 1810 et 1839r, Paris, 1989, p. 31.

A number of clocks of this popular design exist, although none are exactly the same as this clock. Comparable clocks include one in the Spanish Royal Collection, illustrated in J. Ramon Colon de Carvajal, Catalogo de Relojes del Patrimonio Nacional, Madrid, 1987, p. 90, no. 73; one in P. Kjellberg, Encyclopédie de la pendule française du Moyen Age au XXe siècle, Paris, 1997, p. 292, fig. B; and one is in the British Royal Collections, see C. Jagger, Royal Clocks, The British Monarchy and its Timekeepers 1300-1900, London, 1983, p. 150. Unlike this clock, the above examples have ormolu or pierced marble domes, making the star-studded blued steel roof of this clock particularly interesting and unique.