Desk clock "Cercle tournant", Louis XV Style, France, Napoleon III, c. 1855

Desk clock "Cercle tournant", Louis XV Style
France, Napoleon III, c. 1855
Mercury gilt bronze, enameled Sèvres plate and white Carrara marble.
Paris machinery, signed "Vincent & Cie" and "Marquis Paris".
Brocot suspension
Preserves winding key, with regulating key and pendulum.
Signed "Sieffert Sèvres Exposition".
Provenance: Private collection Marquise de Silvela, it was a gift from the emeritus Queen Isabella II of Spain to the Marquise.
Measurements: 80 x 88 x 34 cm.

French table clock, "Cercle tournant" Louis XV style, Napoleon III period. Made in gilded bronze ormulu and porcelain of Sèvres, with base in white marble of Carrara, and decoration of garland of laurels, oak leaves and border of pearls. On the base is the clock in the oval bronze case decorated on the front with an enameled Sevres plaque, with a gallant scene, signed "Sieffert Sévres Exposition'", flanked by two cherubs with garland of flowers chiseled with motifs "a candelieri". The urn top with doves houses the "tournant" clock. It has its original Paris movement, with brocot suspension and chiming on alloy bell at the hours and half-hours, coined and signed by Vincent & Cie. With stamp of the "Maison Marquis Paris", and numbered.

The plate, made by Louis Eugéne Sieffert (1842 - 1929), pupil of Claudius Marcel Popelin, reproduces a painting by François Boucher, "Le pasteur galant", created for the audience room of Prince Hercule-Mériadec, Duke of Rohan, on the second floor of the Hôtel de Soubise. Possibly the author made use of André Laurent's intaglio print, which is why it appears inverted with respect to the original.

It represents a gallant scene in a forest, dispensing with the ruins of the original. The man hangs a garland of flowers from a young shepherdess; at her feet rest his sheep, as well as his hat and staff.

Sieffert built a solid reputation as a porcelain painter through his brilliant performances at the Parisian universal exhibitions with his wife Annette-Eugénie Perrot.

Nineteenth-century bronze table clocks were key pieces in decoration and interior design, as well as symbols of social status and refinement. Elaborately crafted and often adorned with artistic motifs, these clocks not only served to measure time, but also reflected the technical advances and taste for fine craftsmanship of the time. Bronze, a durable and aesthetically appreciated material, allowed the creation of complex and elegant forms, integrating styles such as neoclassical or rococo, which made them highly valued objects in the residences of high society.