l'Amour Messager - Louis XVI Style Clock In Marble And Gilt Bronze. Model By J.-b. Pigalle.

The Messenger of Love.-Beautiful clock with allegorical subject in white statuary marble and finely chiseled gilded bronze depicting seated, leaning on a terminal forming a desk, in the guise of a little girl, a cherub responding under the watchful eye of a pigeon to a missive of love; at his feet are placed a quiver and ribbon bow. Inspired by a model also called "Message d'Amour" designed by the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Pigalle (1714-1785), this composition is based on a half-moon shaped base with projections decorated with appliques with openwork patterns of foliage scrolls and a bas-relief animated by the games of small cupids. All supported by round ornate feet. White enamelled circular dial with Arabic numerals. Movement with the stamp of the Watchmaker "L. P Japy & Cie/ Hors-Concours/1878". Quality Parisian work in the Louis XVI style from the second half of the 19th century attributable to the Maison de Bronzes d' Art et d' Ameublement Denière. Circa 1870
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A very sweet "Message d'Amour"...
Resting on six round, gadrooned and foliaged feet, this radiant clock Louis XVI silhouette presents a large base with Carrara marble projections, decorated with fleurons, rosettes, foliage, interlacing of acanthus and grained myrtle in delicately chiseled gilded bronze, standing out in openwork appliques on rectangular compartments; one of them, hosts a pleasant bas-relief where carefree frolic, like the clay tableaux once modeled by Edmé Bouchardon (1698-1762) or Claude Michel, known as Clodion (1738-1814), within an anthology of garlands of flowers of laughing loves Birdcatchers or bickering over baskets of flowers or riding a branch of myrtle. Centered, this small as ingenuous composition declines with accuracy and taste the sentimental theme chosen for this firmly elaborated timepiece. Based on this marble base, an Antique Borne - containing the movement of the clock - with laterally architectural profiles embellished with a diamond-shaped mesh, an opulent artistically draped fabric serves as a lectern for a delightful childish figure leaning on it. Captured in a suspended gesture, holding a feather in one hand, in the other a phylactery placed on her coquettishly folded right leg, a little girl with curly hair pulled up in a graceful bun, her face under her forehead encircled by a headband (allusion to Clairvoyant Love) illuminated by a cute smile is amused by the gallant remarks or amorous oaths poured out on the missive. Under the tender eye of a pigeon camped, wings half-open, near a quiver with arrows fletching, a ribboned bow placed on the molded terrace, she prepares to write the affable response of which the bird - associated in the sentimental "cartography" of the 18th century with shared emotions and tenderness - will become the zealous Messenger.
Chiseled with tact, this sculptural group of great finesse of execution takes up with some variations of attitudes and arrangements adapted to the pendulum object a model designed (after 1780) by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle (1714-1785). Titled L'Amour Messager or also Message d'Amour according to its transpositions (biscuits, bronze castings, marbles) or posthumous reissues, this work depicts, seated on a small mossy mound marked with the attributes of Cupid (bow, quiver), a plump, lightly draped cherub edicting to his diligent winged companion (Turtledove or Dove) curled up next to him and wearing around his neck tied with a ribbon a fold, secret instructions. Set on its bezel with a pearl, the white enamel dial of the clock bears the hours and minutes painted in black in increments of fifteen in Arabic numerals. Stamped on its movement with the seal of one of the most distinguished French Watchmaking Fabriques - L. P Japy & Cie, Hors-Concours in 1878 at the Universal Exhibition in Paris - which allows its dating, this timepiece of undeniable quality from a formal and artistic point of view can be attributed to the Parisian Maison de Bronzes d'Art et d'Ameublement Denière (1815-1901) world-renowned for "the knowledge, solidity, and integrity" of its models which, presented at major international events, earned it many honorary distinctions. We know, thanks to the Sales Catalogue of his "models (..) of Great Decoration" (Paris, Hôte l Drouot, Sales of February 10-13 and December 11-12, 1903), that these illustrious representatives during the 19th century of French decorative arts offered to his eminent clientele - respectively listed under numbers 50-52 and 53 - "by or after Pigalle" two "Statuettes" of the "Messenger of Love" depicting a "Seated Child", one "writing", the other "sending his message" presented either in 60 or 44 cm as well as a "Louis XVI Style Clock titled "Messenger of Love - Child with pigeon" made of "statuary white marble with gilded bronze base and Blue Turquin marble".
Suitable on the mantel of a fireplace, the marble top of a chest of drawers or a console, .. this terminal clock with the subject of The Love Messenger, all of balance and shaped softness, will perpetuate within any elegant interior the intimate sentimental dreaminess dear to the French 18th century that never ceases to conquer us.

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Marks and Signature: Numbered movement with the stamp of the Watchmaker "L. P Japy & Cie/ Hors-Concours/1878".
Materials: Gilded bronze; Carrara marble; enamel and steel.
Dimensions: H.: 39 cm;-L.: 35 cm;-Pr.: 21 cm.
Very high quality Parisian work in the Louis XVI style on a model by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle (1714-1785). Second half of the 19th century, Napoleon III period, circa 1870.
Good condition. Original mercury gilding.