Louis XV style clock; late 19th century.

Louis XV style clock; late nineteenth century.
Gilded bronze.
Signed dial.
Preserves key and pendulum.
Measurements: 70 x 55 x 17 cm.
Table clock entirely made in gilded bronze, in the style of Louis XV period, in full rococo. It is a totally sculptural piece, worked in round bulk and finished with a meticulous work of cold chiseling. The rococo inspiration leaves aside the classical architectural structures so typical of 19th century table clocks, and gives way to a composition of great fantasy, dynamism and naturalistic sense. It is a staggered structure, divided into three levels: the base, the legs that support the clock and its case, the design visually unifies the whole, following a totally anti-classical criterion that was one of the bases of rococo, and that the nineteenth-century artists have been able to understand and apply here with clarity. The base follows an open, moving and asymmetrical design, based on branches of organic appearance, which suggest the vegetal without actually specifying it, as occurs with the decorative motifs of the rococo period. Thus, we see sinuous forms whose texture is reminiscent of a plant, but also of a shell and even the ripples of water. A fanciful but harmonious blend of styles typical of 19th century historicisms, which rarely composed designs with elements of a single style of the past. The watch case itself takes the form of a horizontal cylinder, raised on a pillar that is the only architectural concession of the design, used to be useful as a transitional body between forms and motifs. The dial features Roman numerals in black on a white background, with openwork hands.