The drum-shaped case flanked by a reclining figure of a lady in Chinese costume on a scrolling foliate and rockwork base, a palm curving over the whole, the later white enameled dial inscribed 'MUSSON A PARIS'
12¹⁄₂ in. (32 cm.) high, 14¹⁄₂ in. (37 cm.) wide

Marquesa Margaret Rockefeller de Larrain (1897-1985), New York; Sotheby's, New York, 15 November 1980, lot 77.
Property of a Private Collector, New Jersey; Sotheby’s, New York, 27 October 2001, lot 171.
Property from the Estate of Harold Young; Sotheby's, New York, 9 June 2014, lot 79.
Acquired by Irene Roosevelt Aitken from the above.

W. Edey, exhibition catalogue, French Clocks in North American Collections, New York, The Frick Collection, 1982, p. 60, no. 56.

New York, The Frick Collection, French Clocks in North American Collections, 2 November 1982 - 30 January 1983, no. 56.

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Lot Essay

The elegantly reclining figure on this clock is identical to that on a pair of chenets in the Palazzo del Quirinale, Rome, almost certainly originally supplied to Madame Infante, Louis-Elizabeth of France, Duchesse de Parme, for the Palazzo di Colorno. These chenets were likely to have been supplied by the celebrated bronzier Jacques Caffieri, who delivered superb bronzes d'ameublement to Madame Infante for Colorno, including the celebrated chandeliers now in the Wallace Collection. It is also interesting to note that in the inventory taken at Caffieri's death in 1755, a pair of chenets was described as un autre modèle de garniture de gril représentant un Chinois et une Chinoise (see A. González-Palacios, Il Patrimonio Artistico del Quirinale: Gli Arredi Francesi, Milan, 1995, p. 271, cat. 71).

Other clocks of this model include one sold from the Elizabeth Parke Firestone Collection, Christie's, New York, 22-23 March 1991, lot 873; another, previously in the collections of Georges Wildenstein and Akram Ojjeh, sold Christie's, London, 12 December 2002, lot 44; one sold from the collection of Ilhamy Hussein Pacha, Ader, Tajan, Paris, 15 March 1993, lot 442; a further example is illustrated in P. Kjellberg, La Pendule Française, Paris, 1997, p. 117, ill. G.; and finally one with a patinated bronze figure, sold from the Saunderson Collection, Christie’s, New York, 21 October 2005, lot 438.