Mantel clock (pendule de chiminée)

Maker: Movement by the workshop of Julien Le Roy (French, Tours 1686–1759 Paris)

Maker: Case maker: Joseph Baumhauer (French, active ca. 1749–72)

Modeler: Bronze figure from a model by Laurent Guiard (1723–1788)

Date: ca. 1757–60

Culture: French, Paris

Medium: Case: gilded and patinated bronze on a base of oak veneered with ebony with gilded-bronze mounts; Dial: white enamel with black numerals; Movement: brass and steel

Dimensions: Overall: 19 × 27 1/2 × 11 in. (48.3 × 69.9 × 27.9 cm)

Classification: Horology

Credit Line: Purchase, Mrs. Charles Wrightsman Gift, 1991

Accession Number: 1991.8

Description

Laurent Guiard provided the model for the figure titled “Time’s Employment” adorning this clock. The design proved to be among the most popular in eighteenth-century France. One of the most inventive clockmakers of the time, and clockmaker to Louis XV, Le Roy contributed significantly to the development of the marine chronometer. After his death, his son Pierre Le Roy used his name, making it difficult to distinguish the work of father from son.

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